What do you think?
Rate this book
McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #11
McSweeney's Issue 11: It Can Be Free
Issue 11 features contributions by many of your favorite McSweeney's writers, as well as a chorus of new voices. Contributors include: Tom Bissell, Sean Warren, Samantha Hunt, Robert Olmstead, T.C. Boyle, David Means, Doug Dorst, Joyce Carol Oates, A.G. Pasquella, Brent Hoff, Stephen Elliott, Daphne Beal, Denis Johnson, and many others.
This issue comes complete with a letters section and an interview with prominent scientists, in this case with those investigating the recently found colossal squid, the largest known to man.
Issue 11 also comes with a FREE DVD featuring readings by most of the contributors, a "Literary Cribs" episode starring Jonathan Ames, Dave Eggers interviewing Denis Johnson, Daphne Beal singing in Nepali, and an intern talking about how writers like their coffee. An instant classic of the DVDs-attached-to-literary-quarterlies genre.
This issue comes complete with a letters section and an interview with prominent scientists, in this case with those investigating the recently found colossal squid, the largest known to man.
Issue 11 also comes with a FREE DVD featuring readings by most of the contributors, a "Literary Cribs" episode starring Jonathan Ames, Dave Eggers interviewing Denis Johnson, Daphne Beal singing in Nepali, and an intern talking about how writers like their coffee. An instant classic of the DVDs-attached-to-literary-quarterlies genre.
293 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2003
7 people are currently reading
162 people want to read
About the author
Dave Eggers
217 books9,463 followersDave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is best known for his 2000 memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Eggers is also the founder of several notable literary and philanthropic ventures, including the literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the literacy project 826 Valencia, and the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness. Additionally, he founded ScholarMatch, a program that connects donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in numerous prestigious publications, including The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 7, 2023
Why is he getting to this issue so late???, the public asks. Well, I have every McSweeney's except the first one, but while I've read "in" them, I haven't been religious about reading them from cover to cover. I decided to be more systematic, and so now I've read a third of them completely. I'm bouncing back and forth between old ones and the more recent ones, so this was an instance of going way back.
This volume is a hardback, with gold stamping on the cover, and a DVD inside the back cover. The copyright page refers to "a return to our policy of occasionally attaching disks to the backs of our books; in this case it's a DVD." As far as I know the only previous edition with a disk was #6, but they might be referring to other publications, as well.
The same page says, "for those of you who have been keeping track, it has been quite a long time since we published an issue of this magazine that included all the different elements -- interviews with scientists, fiction involving monkeys, a letters section, and Lawrence Weshler -- that we implied would always be present herein. This issue is a return to that form, for better or worse; ..."
Speaking of the letters section, it was as varied and amusing as I have come to expect, and includes a number of non-consecutive letters by Trevor Koski in which a "twitcher" is defined, and a certain person named Rabs is evaluated.
Liked the science interview (subject being the Giant Squid, et al.), found the Weschler amusing but not gripping, and liked the TV aerial illustrations that run throughout. I particularly noted Benjamin Lytal's "Weena" -- a flash fiction presented as a disordered movie treatment. Very clever.
Samantha Hunt's "Blue" got the note "Odd, but reads well" in my reading notes. The piece got my attention.
Joyce Carol Oates's piece is the same tragedy porn that she seems to have become addicted to, and which I cannot admire. "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is immortal, but constantly hitting that same button strikes me as pathology. Personal taste.
The DVD was clever, but in the end only mildly amusing. It's somewhat of a mockumentary on the process of doing a DVD. For instance, the piece "The Editing of The Making of McSweeney's Issue #11 DVD" is literally a long bit of film from behind the editor as they edit the video, including getting up and leaving to make coffee, then coming back. That is followed by John Hodgman and Sarah Vowel doing voice-over commentary of the same bit of film, in "The Editing of The Making of McSweeney's Issue #11 DVD (with Audio Commentary by John Hodgman and Sarah Vowel)". There is also a Director's Commentary by someone pretending to be Francis Ford Coppola, who is not the Director but is a director, and he doesn't know what's going on, but comments on it authoritatively. There are nice bits of authors reading from their work, but I frequently didn't watch segments to their end. Not riveting.
While I'm picking at a few things, and not mentioning others, I do not mean to imply disappointment. These issues are clever, imaginative, multi-faceted, repeatedly unexpected, and consistently amusing. The attitude of the magazine alone -- more zine, less pretentiousness -- is consistently refreshing. Five stars, and yes, the old issues aren't ephemeral. They are worth finding, and worth going back to.
This volume is a hardback, with gold stamping on the cover, and a DVD inside the back cover. The copyright page refers to "a return to our policy of occasionally attaching disks to the backs of our books; in this case it's a DVD." As far as I know the only previous edition with a disk was #6, but they might be referring to other publications, as well.
The same page says, "for those of you who have been keeping track, it has been quite a long time since we published an issue of this magazine that included all the different elements -- interviews with scientists, fiction involving monkeys, a letters section, and Lawrence Weshler -- that we implied would always be present herein. This issue is a return to that form, for better or worse; ..."
Speaking of the letters section, it was as varied and amusing as I have come to expect, and includes a number of non-consecutive letters by Trevor Koski in which a "twitcher" is defined, and a certain person named Rabs is evaluated.
Liked the science interview (subject being the Giant Squid, et al.), found the Weschler amusing but not gripping, and liked the TV aerial illustrations that run throughout. I particularly noted Benjamin Lytal's "Weena" -- a flash fiction presented as a disordered movie treatment. Very clever.
Samantha Hunt's "Blue" got the note "Odd, but reads well" in my reading notes. The piece got my attention.
Joyce Carol Oates's piece is the same tragedy porn that she seems to have become addicted to, and which I cannot admire. "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" is immortal, but constantly hitting that same button strikes me as pathology. Personal taste.
The DVD was clever, but in the end only mildly amusing. It's somewhat of a mockumentary on the process of doing a DVD. For instance, the piece "The Editing of The Making of McSweeney's Issue #11 DVD" is literally a long bit of film from behind the editor as they edit the video, including getting up and leaving to make coffee, then coming back. That is followed by John Hodgman and Sarah Vowel doing voice-over commentary of the same bit of film, in "The Editing of The Making of McSweeney's Issue #11 DVD (with Audio Commentary by John Hodgman and Sarah Vowel)". There is also a Director's Commentary by someone pretending to be Francis Ford Coppola, who is not the Director but is a director, and he doesn't know what's going on, but comments on it authoritatively. There are nice bits of authors reading from their work, but I frequently didn't watch segments to their end. Not riveting.
While I'm picking at a few things, and not mentioning others, I do not mean to imply disappointment. These issues are clever, imaginative, multi-faceted, repeatedly unexpected, and consistently amusing. The attitude of the magazine alone -- more zine, less pretentiousness -- is consistently refreshing. Five stars, and yes, the old issues aren't ephemeral. They are worth finding, and worth going back to.
April 19, 2021
This is an excellent collection of stories. I’m still watching the DVD but what I’ve seen so far is just wonderfully Mcsweeney’s. Feels like it was made in a teenager’s basement but the entertainment value is high. Fantastic issue!
February 20, 2021
4 stars if only for the John Hodgman and Sarah Vowell commentary on "The Editing of the Making of McSweeneys" portion of the DVD.
November 26, 2025
Hated Oates' contribution, but that was more to do with the subject matter.
April 9, 2013
All well-written, original stories. Sometimes I found myself too dumb (or McSweeney's too pretentious) to tell the difference between irony and seriousness, fiction and nonfiction. But I still really enjoyed this collection and plus it's a super pretty book. I definitely want to read more issues, and I'll have opportunity to since I have one or two others that Brooke has picked up for me at used bookstores around the country!
More thorough Blue bookcase review coming someday, I hope.
More thorough Blue bookcase review coming someday, I hope.
May 26, 2016
What. I've come to expect from Mcsweeney's, an over-average collection of short stories. Some good, some great, some terrible because they reached too far into the experimental, and some terrible because they just weren't very good. But always a thumbs up.
Read
August 31, 2007halfway through
May 19, 2012
Fantastic
Weird
A bit too sexual for me in parts
But then got good again!
I just bought 6 more!
Weird
A bit too sexual for me in parts
But then got good again!
I just bought 6 more!
February 3, 2009
The Giant Squid issue. AWESOME. The DVD in the back is amazing.
Currently reading
August 29, 2010what a great book.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews