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Correspondences
limited edition foldout
First published January 1, 2008
25 people want to read
About the author
Ben Greenman
52 books72 followersBen Greenman is an editor at The New Yorker whose short fiction, journalism, and essays have appeared there, The New York Times, McSweeneys, The Paris Review, and Zoetrope: All Story. He is the author of several acclaimed books of fiction, including Superbad, Superworse, A Circle is a Balloon and Compass Both, Correspondences, and the novel Please Step Back. HIs new book of stories What He's Poised To Do: Stories was published in June of 2010.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 9, 2009
My review for the LA Times
December 7, 2008 http://www.latimes.com/features/books...
"Correspondences" by Ben Greenman (Hotel St. George Press: $50, 250-copy limited edition) is a beautiful, letterpressed, book-like object containing seven short stories that literally unfold before you. The case is earth-colored cardboard with a wine-red sleeve, almost like a box of stationery. The first story, "What He Was Poised to Do," is revealed as you open the case; the text includes numbers corresponding to postcards the characters write to one another. You might expect to find those postcards inside; instead there is a blank one there, inviting you to fill in one of those from the story. This is a challenge, because Greenman's writing is wonderfully intimidating, bountiful yet compressed; one willing lover is "like a penny rolling across the floor." Maybe you ought to read the other stories first? Each story involves letters -- to lovers, friends, a daughter -- but few correspondents hope to receive anything in return. Yet one story is set on the impossible border of India and Australia and focuses on a karmic boomerang business (talk about karmic return). The enclosed stories are printed on opposite sides of accordion-style inserts -- "Hope," for example, is a story that is paired with another that has little, a reminder that correspondence is a kind of relationship, connection. "Correspondences" is a gorgeous collection of short stories, integrated in its content and construction, yet unfinished; it waits for your postcard to arrive.
December 7, 2008 http://www.latimes.com/features/books...
"Correspondences" by Ben Greenman (Hotel St. George Press: $50, 250-copy limited edition) is a beautiful, letterpressed, book-like object containing seven short stories that literally unfold before you. The case is earth-colored cardboard with a wine-red sleeve, almost like a box of stationery. The first story, "What He Was Poised to Do," is revealed as you open the case; the text includes numbers corresponding to postcards the characters write to one another. You might expect to find those postcards inside; instead there is a blank one there, inviting you to fill in one of those from the story. This is a challenge, because Greenman's writing is wonderfully intimidating, bountiful yet compressed; one willing lover is "like a penny rolling across the floor." Maybe you ought to read the other stories first? Each story involves letters -- to lovers, friends, a daughter -- but few correspondents hope to receive anything in return. Yet one story is set on the impossible border of India and Australia and focuses on a karmic boomerang business (talk about karmic return). The enclosed stories are printed on opposite sides of accordion-style inserts -- "Hope," for example, is a story that is paired with another that has little, a reminder that correspondence is a kind of relationship, connection. "Correspondences" is a gorgeous collection of short stories, integrated in its content and construction, yet unfinished; it waits for your postcard to arrive.
Displaying 1 of 1 review