The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

I thought it was worth creating a separate discussion, and using a separate folder now that the list is out. May set up more threads later.

These are the books:

Blood Red by Gabriela Ponce Padilla tr. Sarah Booker (Restless Books)
Family Album: Stories by Gabriela Alemán tr. Dick Cluster, Mary Ellen Fieweger (City Lights Books)
Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing by Robin McLean tr. (And Other Stories)
God's Children Are Little Broken Things: Stories by Arinze Ifeakandu tr. (A Public Space Books)
Moldy Strawberries by Caio Fernando Abreu tr. Bruna Dantas Lobato (Archipelago Books)
New Animal by Ella Baxter tr. (Two Dollar Radio)
A New Name: Septology VI-VII by Jon Fosse tr. Damion Searls (Transit Books)
New and Selected Stories by Cristina Rivera Garza tr. Sarah Booker, Lisa Dillman, Francisca González Arias, Alex Ross, Cristina Rivera Garza (Dorothy, a publishing project)
Pollak's Arm by Hans von Trotha tr. Elisabeth Lauffer (New Vessel Press)
The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr tr. (Coach House Books)

Hugh wrote: "Is there any appetite for individual book discussions and dynamic rankings?"

It sounds like there might be more interest than I expected. I'd be open to whatever the group wants to do.

I have New and Selected Stories on my shelf so I'll start with that. It's great to see Dorothy, a publishing project, recognized.

Moldy Strawberries: Stories flew right over my head. It's probably due to the missing social and cultural context but I understood nothing.

endrju wrote: "Moldy Strawberries: Stories flew right over my head. It's probably due to the missing social and cultural context but I understood nothing."

I've heard similar lukewarm reactions from two friends of mine in Brazil. One of them actually told me he thought people outside the country might get more from the experience of reading it than those within the country.

There were two, perhaps three stories that I could relate to in some way but the rest - just strings of words without any relation between them.

Blood Red sounds interesting. A lot of short story collections though. I have issues with the short story as a form (unless it's horror), so I think I'll skip most of them unless there's a really strong collection in there somewhere...

I’m not eager for more short story collections either.

Nice write up from kirkus: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/news-an...

Horrible feeling I may need to use Amazon for some of these. Blood Red. USD17 for the book. An additional USD50 for the postage.

I just started Moldy Strawberries- so far, I’m liking it. I’ve only read the first four stories, though.

God’s Children also has a more mainstream UK publisher. The AndOtherStories book is dual UK/US published by them.

So far have only found one book where the postage from US isn’t several times the book cost. So I will order physical copies from Amazon and E copies from the US publishers.

Paul wrote: "So far have only found one book where the postage from US isn’t several times the..."

Sounds expensive...don't know if you have a storytel in the UK, but the Ponce, McLean, Rivera Garza, Baxter and Aleman are all included as e-book and/or audio.

Well I was more thinking of channelling money to the small presses rather than the US postal service.

That’s the bad part about supporting overseas presses.

Yes you experience the same in the opposite direction.

David Naimon has interviewed Cristina Rivera Garza twice, most recently this year after the release of her New and Selected Stories: https://tinhouse.com/podcast/cristina...

The earlier interview is focused on The Taiga Syndrome and some of her nonfiction writings from that period: https://tinhouse.com/podcast/cristina...

Arinze Ifeakandu's story God's Children Are Little Broken Things was a finalist for the 2017 Caine Prize. Here is a link to the story: https://static1.squarespace.com/stati...

That is the title story in God's Children Are Little Broken Things: Stories. I'm not sure if it was reworked in the intervening years.

One more piece on Arinze Ifeakandu, a conversation among Nigerian writers titled Un-Silencing Queer Nigeria: https://brittlepaper.com/2018/10/un-s...

Helpful context for his collection.

I've already read the Ifeakandu, the Garza and the Abreu, I've been contemplating the Ponce but not in a hurry to get hold of it. But it'll be interesting to see what others think about the list as they work through it.

Paul wrote: "Yes you experience the same in the opposite direction."

Yes, but we have Blackwells for most books, even indie press books, there is nothing here that can ship you indie press books with free shipping.

How did Get ’em Young, Treat ’em Tough, Tell ’em Nothing make it onto RofC US/CAN? And Other Stories is a UK press.

Apparently, they have a U.S. office: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...

Did anyone read Robin McLean's novel, Pity the Beast? It looks like an intriguing mix of 1 and 5 star reviews.

I noticed that whoever writes the book summaries for Goodreads is a huge fan of the semicolon. There are ten ; in two short paragraphs here Pity the Beast

Wendy, sorry to ruin your example, above, but I just couldn’t not correct it after seeing the monstrosity.

Someone took those two paragraphs from the book’s description on Amazon and made them the default description on Goodreads but somehow changed almost all the commas to semicolons, except for one necessary comma that just disappeared altogether. Not sure how they managed to do that. Nobody had bothered to correct it… until now.

Librarians indeed have magical powers.

Wasn’t that crazy? 😂

Lee wrote: "Wendy, sorry to ruin your example, above, but I just couldn’t not correct it after seeing the monstrosity.

Someone took those two paragraphs from the book’s description on Amazon and made them the..."

Lee, since you have these "magical powers" as David points out, do you have any influence over convincing GR to give us the option of choosing the old page view for books, rather than the one they just rolled out across the boards? I really dislike having to scroll for miles to see the book information -- I liked the old format much better. Apologies to all for the aside.

Alas, the magical powers are not that powerful. Think we have to hope for a New Coke scenario.

I just finished the Robin McLean- it was a three star for me- good, but not great. A few of the stories were well done, but others needed some fleshing out.

The Rivera Garza is hard to assess. In isolation, it’s a rather uneven collection, and the better stories have all been published before. But if considered in the context of her entire output, it forms a fascinating conversation with Iliac Crest and Taiga Syndrome, in some ways making those books richer (definitely Iliac Crest).

Based on the prize’s mission, I’d rate this highly - published by a small press taking a creative risk to bring forward a vital piece that links Rivera Garza’s work - even if I am not entirely satisfied with the reading experience.

David wrote: "The Rivera Garza is hard to assess. In isolation, it’s a rather uneven collection, and the better stories have all been published before. But if considered in the context of her entire output, it f..."

It is an odd one isn't it - collections are hard to assess generally but even more so when something of a compendium. Actually perhaps one can be more generous there as the collection isn't necessarily designed to cohere.

Arinze Ifeakandu's instagram account has been an inspiring place today with posts shared back and forth about his book's longlisting for the Dylan Thomas prize. Radio silence about the RoC - apparently because there's no RoC post to share. It's unfortunate because that would have taken a very small amount of time and effort to put together but would have yielded tremendous exposure and goodwill.

For what it's worth, Javier's bookstore (Exile in Bookville) in Chicago did make a post, so there's at least that floating out there.

RofC US/CAN hasn’t updated their site. Why? That should be the first item on the to do list.

Does RoC have an IG account?

Their Twitter account is pretty underwhelming---I tried to spruce things up visually but I don't have a large following...
https://twitter.com/monkeelino/status...

WndyJW wrote: "RofC US/CAN hasn’t updated their site. Why? That should be the first item on the to do list."

The update is on the blog portion of their site. Again, underwhelming marketing/outreach... A headscratcher for sure...

Marc wrote: "Does RoC have an IG account?

Their Twitter account is pretty underwhelming---I tried to spruce things up visually but I don't have a large following...
https://twitter.com/monkeelino/status......"

There is an instagram account but it's unclear whether it's for the UK prize or the UK bookclub: https://www.instagram.com/republicofc...

It would have taken less than an hour to set up an account and take pics of the books - and then the publicity would take care of itself with everyone sharing it. It seems like a small sacrifice for the social media recognition the authors and publishers could have enjoyed.

Although bear in mind this prize and others like it are being run by people with day jobs and often funding the prize themselves or working for free (I think all the prize money may come from Lori Feathers and she has a bookshop to run). This isn't the Booker which have millions to spend and paid employees whose job is to run social media (and still do a pretty poor job of it).

I'm sure they'd welcome volunteers (and the UK prize certainly welcomed those here who volunteered to take part in helping select books)

That Instagram is the UK prize but not actively used. The Twitter account is and the website, although a lot of that will move to Substack soon.

David wrote: "There is an instagram account but it's unclear whether it's for the UK prize or the UK bookclub: https://www.instagram.com/republicofc....."

I think that's for the UK Prize, but they don't have any posts past May 2021. Seems like you could get a young intern or something to run social media for these efforts... (easy for me to say, I guess)...

And pay them how though? Arts Council eg pulled funding this year that UK prize could use previously.

I wasn't being critical, it just seemed like a lost opportunity. Javier's bookstore made a post. It would have taken just a few minute to sign up for an account, use the pic that was already taken, and then allow publishers and authors to share it.

Yes it does to be fair.

I was actually thinking of the U.S. prize having a social media intern as the UK prize seems more savvy in terms of social media (their IG account aside). Student internships in the U.S. can be for educational credit instead of paid. Not ideal.

I reached out to Lori to see how I could help and got no response.

Agree with David that it seems like a lost opportunity, especially for a new prize.

That's a bit disappointing if you reached out. The prize funding is very generous (wish UK prize could afford those prizes) but time does seem a limiting factor.

And particularly a shame if an author was engaging on social media.

Your tweet was great and hadn't realised who you were on Twitter.

Incidentally title of this thread is wrong - this is the 2022 prize not the 2023 one. The US/Canada prize has gone with year of publication. The UK prize does year of prize being awarded (which I suspect is also more media savvy - people want to hear about 2023 not 2022)

Also looking back on Across the Pond episodes, of the 7 books featured 5 made it (Sleeping Car Porter, A New Name, Pollak's Arm, New and Selected Short Stories, Get ‘Em Young, Treat ‘Em Tough, Tell ‘Em Nothing) and 2 didn't (Wolfskin, New to Liberty)

Maddie Mortimer features on the latest podcast

New to Liberty was one I was hoping to see.

I need to catch up with the podcast.

Paul wrote: "Incidentally title of this thread is wrong - this is the 2022 prize not the 2023 one. The US/Canada prize has gone with year of publication. The UK prize does year of prize being awarded (which I s..."

I was thinking that same thing in terms of naming the prize and making it sound more timely.

I'll keep ordering from publishers and tweeting/retweeting about both the U.S. and UK prizes (operating on the every-little-bit-helps theory). Bummer to hear about the funding issues with the UK prize, but still looking forward to their upcoming longlist.

As far as I know, every other prize is named for the year it is awarded, regardless of the eligibility period (and often the eligibility period straddles calendar years).

endrju wrote: "A lot of short story collections though. I have issues with the short story as a form (unless it's horror)"

It seems like this is a sentiment shared by others in the group.

Paul wrote: "It is an odd one isn't it - collections are hard to assess generally but even more so when something of a compendium. Actually perhaps one can be more generous there as the collection isn't necessarily designed to cohere."

I like Alwynne's description of the Rivera Garza as a retrospective. But notably it's a retrospective without her greatest works, which are her novels - at least from what I've read.

Obviously, it's impractical to include novels within a short story collection, but returning to the retrospective metaphor, the effect is like going to, say, a Frida Kahlo exhibition that doesn't include her best work. The exhibition can still be a success at contextualizing the totality of her vision and work, but it isn't complete in itself.