The Paris Review, Issue 227, Winter 2018

by Emily Nemens (Editor)

Pat Barker on the Art of Fiction: "Books stand or fall really on their endings. I don't think there's any such thing as a good novel that has a weak ending." Sam Lipsyte on the Art of Fiction: "When you revise it's not just fixing or polishing, it's really pulling it inside out again."

New fiction by Hernan Diaz, Kelli Jo Ford, Lincoln Michel, and Ludmilla Petrushevskaya.

Poems by Hanif Abdurraqib, Rae Armantrout, Sarah Blake, Alex Dimitrov, Anaïs Duplan, Geoffrey Hill, Ilya Kaminsky, Donika Kelly, Robin Coste Lewis, Toby Martinez de las Rivas, Shane McCrae, Caryl Pagel, Linda Pastan, Roger Reeves, Margaret Ross, Mary Szybist, Jan Verberkmoes, G. C. Waldrep, and Emily Jungmin Yoon.

Nonfiction by Leslie Jamison. A portfolio by Hernan Bas, with text by Wayne Koestenbaum. And a document from Donald Hall.

Genres: Short Stories, Poetry

221 pages, Perfectbound

First published December 1, 2018

About the author

Emily Nemens’s debut novel, The Cactus League, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and named one of NPR’s and Lit Hub’s favorite books of 2020. Her stories have appeared in BOMB, The Gettysburg Review, n+1, and elsewhere; her illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker and in collaboration with Harvey Pekar. Nemens spent over a decade editing literary quarterlies, including leading The Paris Review and serving as co-editor and prose editor of The Southern Review. She held the 2022–23 Picador Professorship (University of Leipzig) and teaches in the MFA program at Bennington College. She lives in central New Jersey with her husband and dog.

Reviews

[Erika Dreifus · Rating 4 out of 5]

The standout piece here—worth the entire issue on its own: Leslie Jamison's masterpiece of an essay about her mother's first marriage (and the novel that was written about it). I admired as well Lincoln Michel's short story "A Feeling Artist," and I suspect that if I hadn't already been reading more than my usual share of magical realism lately I would have had more patience with the translation (by Anna Friedrich) of Ludmilla Petrushevskaya's "Two Sisters," which, alas, lost me halfway through. A sad coda about/from Donald Hall, too.

[Ylenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.75 ⭐

Loved Jamison’s essay and A Feeling Artist by Lincoln Michel.

[Kaiju Reviews · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nothing blew me away in this issue.

Standouts were: Two Sisters, by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, (which I read while also reading the Gentleman From Moscow, so seeing she'd also written something called The Girl from the Metropol Hotel - especially giving the creepiness of this story - struck me as certifiably supernatural).

Sam Lipsyte interview. I bought his book. Haven't read it yet as of this writing.

Armantrout poems
Szybist poem.
Reeves poem.

[Dieuwke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved reading the interview with Pat Barker and Leslie Jamison’s essay had me in just the right state of mind, wondering, contemplating, being grateful, and grieving.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was my first time reading an entire Paris Review cover to cover. I thought the short stories were all good, especially Hybrid Vigor and Stay. I also enjoyed the essay by Leslie Jamison, and the interview with Pat Barker was excellent. I read Barker's Silence of the Girls last year and loved the writing so it was a treat hearing more about her process and perspective. This was the first issue of my subscription so looking forward to more.

[Kamran Sehgal · Rating 4 out of 5]

The short story 'A Feeling Artist' was the standout for me but closely tied is Leslie Jamison's 'I Met Fear on the Hill'. The interviews with Sam Lipsyte was beautiful but I found the Pat Barker interview more interesting.


This is the first issue of The Paris Review I have read and all in all I was impressed with the selection and I look forward to the rest of my subscription.

[old acc · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thank this issue for introducing me to Ludmilla Petrushevskaya

[Daniel Modlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hanif Abdurraqib, Leslie Jamison, and Hernán Diaz take the cake

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic short stories in this issue and a wonderful personal essay from Leslie Jamison. Auspicious beginning under the new editor. 🤗

[Kurishin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This issue is yet another reminder that short stories continue to carry The Paris Review. The poetry volume has increased, it seems, though without a correlative increase in quality.

[Erika · Rating 4 out of 5]

2 compelling short stories in this issue, always enjoy the thoughtful poetry, and the art paired with short fables section.
A nice break, something to be read in bits at a time.