McSweeney's Issue 28 (Mcsweeney's Quarterly Concern) | Good stories, not a whole lot of material

McSweeney's Issue 28 (Mcsweeney's Quarterly Concern) | Let Down

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McSweeney's Issue ...

	McSweeney's Issue 28 (Mcsweeney's Quarterly Concern) McSweeney's, 2008 - 300 pages average customer review:based on 2 reviews view larger image
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McSweeney's has grown to be one of the country's best and largest-circulation literary journals. It's committed to finding new voices, publishing work of gifted but underappreciated writers, and pushing the literary form forward at all times. McSweeney?s Issue 28 explores the state of the fable in eight illustrated books, which ? in the hands of authors including Daniel Alarcón, Sheila Heti, and Nathan Englander ? contains egg boys, irresistible boxes, and a man who keeps meeting himself.

Good stories, not a whole lot of material

I'm a relative newcomer to McSweeneys, having started reading about McSweeneys 25 or so. As far as literature periodicals go, it's one of the most consistent and the best in terms of writing craft and interesting stories. This latest one, like so many others, is full of interesting stories in an attractive, unique box with puzzle-matching individual books for each story.

The issue is dedicated to fables, and they're all really good. They range from surreal to quite classical. The thing is, though, the eight stories in this collection are all really short, and even with taking the time to read the foreward inside the cover of the case and look at the different illustrations (most of which are fantastic), this edition doesn't take very long to get through. I don't want to stress quantity all that much, because frankly McSweeneys is an enjoyable experience for anyone who reads, but this volume is a little expensive for about an hours worth of reading.

Nevertheless, one of the neat things about McSweeneys' various ways of printing multiple books and the like is the ability to split up the stories and send them on different paths. One of my favorite things to do with the periodicals is pass them off to friends, though not always in their complete forms. With eight different fables all independently bound, the quantity can be made up by sending different stories to eight different friends, and letting them all pass them on independently as well. It's a fun way of seeing which people end up with what story and introduces a lot of people to some decent writing, so that they can get interested too. No better way to get things read than passing it on, right?

--PolarisDiB

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Let Down

After being such a huge fan of #27, this issue was a big disappointment. Maybe if I liked Children's Lit more, I would have enjoyed this, but the "fable" genre just strikes me as almost stupid. The covers were great.

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