Stumbling And Raging: More Politically Inspired Fiction

by Stephen Elliott (Editor/Contributor)

Following on from the success of Politically Inspired in 2003 comes Politically Inspired, Still. These short stories have all been influenced by today's politics and are a collection from today's well known and emerging writers. Each of the short stories offers a new perspective on today's politics of fear, desire, and destruction. Some of this year's contributors are: Anthony Swofford (Jarhead)
Aimee Bender - The Girl In The Flammable Skirt
Andrew Sean Greer - The Confessions Of Max Tivoli
Ann Packer - The Dive From Clausen Pier
Audrey Niffeneger - The Time Traveler's Wife
Peter Orner - Esther Stories
Chris Abani - Graceland
David Amsden - Important Things That Don't Really Matter

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

331 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Stephen Elliott is the author of seven books including Happy Baby, a finalist for the New York Public Library's Young Lions Award, as well as a Best Book of 2004 in Salon.com, Newsday, Chicago New City, Journal News, and Village Voice. Elliott's writing has been featured in Esquire, The New York Times, GQ, Best American Non-Required Reading 2005 & 2007, Best American Erotica, and Best Sex Writing 2006. He is the editor of Where To Invade Next and three collections of politically inspired fiction. In January, 2009, he founded the online culture magazine, The Rumpus."

Reviews

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

despite the excellence of quite a few of the stories (and graphic novelettes - good on the editors for including some-a them!), i came away from this collection feeling more like i'd been given insight into the san franciscan liberal literati rather than into the crumpled and complicated politics of my homeland. (what a brain-stretch to figure out who f.s. yu might be!)

okay, so maybe i expect too much (and risk sounding not a little like sarah palin). but i couldn't resist writing 'by lefties' after the 'more politically inspired fiction' title. i do expect too much, i know. but i didn't feel like my own political assumptions were being challenged to a mentionable extent, and that felt like a let-down.

still and all: it was an enjoyable read, if not foundation-shaking. i was glad to discover quite a few of the writers.

what i really liked:
-"requiem for sammy the magic cat" by andrew foster altschul (written from the point of view of one of the children in the class g.w. bush was reading to when the attacks of 11th sept. 2001 happened)
-"how little we know about cast polymers, and about life" by ben greenman
-"the cremation ground" by karan mahajan (very beautifully written)
-"tough day for the army" by john warner (the dream of an under-utilised military)
-"john ashcroft: more important things than me" by jim shepard (former attorney general engages in 'creative self-doubt'; excellent)

[Erica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this collection. The politics inspiring the contents were not all truly current events, which made it refreshing for me. I often have mixed feeling regarding short storys, but I think that the fact there were many authors made them more palatable than is sometimes the case. Something that occured to me... With several of the selections, time and place wasn't immediately apparent -- the story could have been several different places and/or times. A sad commentary on humankinds inability to learn from mistakes, I think.

[Avital · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm in it. What more can I say? ;)

[Marie-Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

i am usually not a big fan of short stories, but these are neat little insights into the war. some stories are really short, but very impactful.