Granta 109: Work

Granta: The Magazine of New Writing #109

by John Freeman (Editor), Salman Rushdie (Contributor)

Perhaps the most enduring legacy of the Industrial Revolution is, for better or for worse, our inclination to define who we are by what we do, and this essential new issue of Granta will lay bare the intrinsic link between work and identity. From the jobless to the workaholics, from the hard work of dying to the landscape work has created out of office parks and suburbs, Granta 109 tells the stories of how and why we work in the twenty-first century. Steven Hall visits the world's pre-eminent robotics lab to see what machines will do for us next; Caroline Moorehead explores the trafficking of workers into the United Kingdom; Daniel Alarcon infiltrates the world of book pirating in Peru; Salman Rushdie meditates on sloth; Rose George examines the state of merchant shipping;Ruchir Joshi travels India to find out how a transforming economy is affecting the nation's professional landscape; and Aminatta Forna profiles the last vet in Sierra Leone. Photographs of Johannesburg's Ponte City Apartments by Mikhael Subotzky, and new fiction from Joshua Ferris, VV Ganeshananthan, Julian Barnes and Jim Crace. Granta 109 gives us a glimpse of ourselves at our most primordial, in a day and age when work has become the most invisible (at least in literature) and yet all-encompassingaspect of human life.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Literature, Short Stories, Anthologies

320 pages, Paperback

First published December 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 3 out of 5]

I liked about two-thirds of the pieces in this issue of Granta. The theme was “Work” and all the pieces related to this topic in one way or another. My favorite was a short story by Brad Watson entitled “Vacuum” about three boys trying to cope with their parents’ separation. I love the narrator’s voice. I got a real kick out of Salmon Rushdie’s “Notes on Sloth” even though he does have a tendency to be a bit academic (or maybe that’s what made it so humorous). He even included a pix of himself being ‘slothful.’ I’m often struck by Colum McCann’s way with words and loved this line from his memoir about his father working in his garden after a day at the office: “On summer nights he would stay out until the sky folded dark around him.” I have a similar memory of my own father only I couldn’t have described it so beautifully. Daniel Alarcón’s article about book piracy in Peru was enlightening, especially the author’s ambivalence, as having your book pirated is a sign of success—also, it gets books to people too poor to pay for originals. Although it’s usually pretty easy when reading an anthology to tell if a story is fact or fiction, I couldn’t tell that Julian Barnes’ “Harmony” was fiction until I looked it up on the Granta website. It would be helpful to list fiction as such in the Table of Contents. Among other pieces I enjoyed were a photo essay of a housing project in Johannesburg, South Africa by Mikhael Subotzky & Patrick Waterhouse and a memoir by Yiyun Li. I know the half star system has been discussed—if it was in place, I’d give this issue 3 ½ stars.

[Shefali · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in a work week--on the bus and train to the office and back. I was terribly moved by Daniel Alarcon's article on book piracy in Peru and Joshua Ferris' story 'The Unnamed.' Steven Hall's essay, 'What I Think About When I Think About Robots' taught me a lot more about humans than robots. Humans wilt and die without reciprocation, connection and some sort of continuity- this is why we seek it even in machines. Perhaps the weakest link for me were the random notes about Sloth by Salman Rushdie. Why does his writing always irk me these days!? In contrast, I enjoyed Ngugi wa Thiong'o's story of his father's four wives and growing up in a family of 24 siblings.

"Simmons assures me that people are tremendously willing to suspend their disbelief and assign anthropomorphic characteristics to machines, particularly machines that interact. Even when they profess to have no feelings about anthropomorphism of the machines, people respond." - Steven Hall

[Pranav · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just read the Rushdie bit, which was quite nice. Trying to get into the mood for reading Oblomov and re-watching Fellini.

[Leo Robertson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some strong pieces, but I had higher hopes for this one.

Work, and crafting gripping prose from its tedium and inorganic nature, is one of my favourite topics. The comic-but-not-really work of Joseph Heller, Joshua Ferris, David Foster Wallace or any other overeducated white male who manages to be grimmer about life than others who likely suffered more? That's my tastiest jam!!

I got a bit of that delectable fruitage—but any litmag, even your highest brow variety, even when themed—I always find it spotty. I'm still getting used to that: you just have to read litmags differently from novels or single-author story collections. You'll never like every piece, so you have to skip if you want to get through them. Once you learn what you like and how to skip, you can collect the primest cutlets of literary meat, but it's not my favourite task as a reader.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Daniel Alarcon about book pirates in Peru, Jim Crace's All That Follows, V.V Ganeshananthan's story of a doctor among the Tamil Tigers, Salman Rushdie on Sloth and Aminatta Forna's tale of the quixotic campaigns of a Sierra Leonean Veterinarian are among the best pieces in this volume.

[Karen·]

I'm going to consign this one to the partially-read shelf. Funny how work didn't grab me nearly as much as sex.

[Karen Kao · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great essay by Daniel Alarcon entitled "Life Among the Pirates"

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic essay by Daniel Alarcón titled "Life Among the Pirates" regarding the publishing industry, intellectual property, and book piracy in Lima, Perú. Despite the essay being 13 years old, I found the information fascinating, insightful, and unfortunately, still relevant and true to my personal recent experiences in Lima as well. This essay was well researched and gave answers to my many questions about bookstores and the industry I witnessed in Perú.

[Lera · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best of these stories were all windows on other lives.

'Life Among the Pirates' tells us what has happened to the Peruvian book trade and why.
'Tommy' gives a glimpse of life in a paper factory
'What I Think When I Think About Robots' dragged a bit, but did guide me to some entertaining ALICE videos on Youtube
Rushdie's notes on Sloth were somewhat dull for me
Ponte City pics fascinating
The Work of War, on the Rwandan genocide, was the most distressing.
The Unnamed, on a mysterious walking ailment, the most interesting.

[Lawrence · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorites for this issue: Alarcon's story of book piracy in Peru, especially his own ambivalent feelings as an author; Rushdie on sloth (guess I have to read Oblomov now); Brad Watson's Vacuum; All That Follows by Jim Crace; and Essex Clay by Peter Stothard. I was bored by Steven Hall's What I Think About When I Think About Robots. And, as far as I'm concerned Joshua Ferris can stop writing now as he has so little to actually say in his novels.

[Maggi · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the middle third of the Granta's I have read. I liked the story "Tommy".

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent, but not one of their best issues. The story of the vet in Sierra Leone was well worth it.