Granta 107: Summer Reading

Granta: The Magazine of New Writing #107

by John Freeman (Editor), Mary Gaitskill (Contributor), Timothy Phillips (Contributor)

With its mixture of investigative reportage, narrative non-fiction, photography, memoir, fiction and brilliant journalism, Granta 107 follows on from the critically-acclaimed summer reading issue to showcase more of the best new writing from around the world.

Join Mary Gaitskill as she meditates on the meaning of a lost cat, Will Self as he walks across Tehran in celebration of the revolution, thirty years on; be there as Timothy Phillips recovers the letters of Eva Reckitt, an English woman monitored by MI5 from the 1920s until after the Second World War; read Xan Rice’s account of the Polisario’s movement for independence in the long-disputed Western Sahara; and Owen Sheers travels to Zimbabwe where his cousin is setting up an orphanage.

Genres: Essays, Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Literary Fiction, Poetry, Photography

256 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2009

About the author

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

John Freeman is an award-winning writer and book critic who has written for numerous publications, including The New Yorker, The New York Times Book Review, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal. Freeman won the 2007 James Patterson Pageturner Award for his work as the president of the National Book Critics Circle, and was the editor of Granta from 2009 to 2013. He lives in New York City, where he teaches at NYU and edits a new literary biannual called Freeman's.

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the 13 pieces including essays and short stories, I really liked nine, which is a pretty good percentage. I thought three were outstanding—Mary Gaitskill’s ‘Lost Cat’ about an adopted cat who is lost and becomes a metaphor for love that can only be given without expectation; ‘American Power’ by Mitch Epstein, a very strong photo essay of American power icons; and ‘A Sign Of Weakness’ by Terrence Holt of a young doctor who loses a patient on his first night on call. ‘Body Snatchers’ by William T. Vollman was also very strong and brought back memories of a book I read earlier this year “The Devil’s Highway” by Luis Alberto Urrea about the desperation of illegal Mexicans risking their lives to find work in the U.S.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

Epstein's photos are amazing, but small size and across the fold layout don't do them justice - better to track down his book American Power. The Vollmann piece really made me want to read Imperial. The rest of this issue is meh or worse.

[Merilee · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a wonderful piece by Mary Gaitskill called Lost Cat.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I may not be able to read them all, but I can at least start them.