Customer Reviews

McSweeney's Issue 22 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern)

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McSweeney's 22 is one of the coolest issues to hold in your hands, as it's three paperbacks with magnetic strips in their spines attached to a hardcover case with a magnetic strip in its spine.

The first book is called a collection of "unfinished" F. Scott Fitzgerald stories. This is misleading--these aren't stories Scott actually started, but just half-ideas and possibilities, some of them a couple words long. Seventeen different writers take these fragments and scraps and write new short shorts about them. Surprisingly, the greater majority of them work.

The second book is a sampling of work from French experimental writing cabal Oulipo. This is possibly the most hit-and-miss collection of stories ever gathered: when they work, they're charming and innovative; when they don't, they're wearying and unbearably self-indulgent. Regardless, it's enjoyable to see such uniqueness and creativity even when the results are difficult. It showcases one of the things McSweeney's does best, which is bring worthwhile super-obscurity to some deserved attention.

The third book is all poetry, called "Poets Picking Poets" (this was later published as a standalone book), where they asked poets to pick poems they like and so on. I've been told by a reliable poet friend that it's pretty good, so I'll vouch for that.

Issue 22 is a bit riskier issue than some, and certainly focuses heavily on the esoteric, but it rewards well by finding some of the best work from some of the least known.

McSweeney's 22 presentation is a hardcover case with a magnetic strip on the inside spine with 3 paperbacks each with magnetic strips on their spine attached. Books held together with magnets, those guys...

The first book takes the ideas F Scott Fitzgerald had for potential stories and has a different writer realise each one. Some are just a few words "Girl and Giraffe" and others more detailed but it's a great idea done so well. Miriam Toews' "The Misstep" is a small play based on an office worker who organised an after hours orgy in the office, "Finally" by Judy Budnitz tells the story of a despot who gets his comeuppance, "The Flying Machine" by Marc Bojanowski is about a gravedigger asked to do a strange favour, Tom Lombardi's "The Bear" features a talking bear, and Rachel Ingalls' "A Gift of the Gods" is about a dancing princess who is given wings by a goddess. These stories are superb and are worth getting the book for alone. Even the lesser stories are well written.

The second book features experimental work from "Oulipo" (no I hadn't heard of them either) and the stories are more stylistic than substantial.

The third and final book is a collection of 50 poets and poems. It's the biggest of the 3 books with about 200 pages.

Despite being a literature student and a big fan of McSweeney's, I'm not as inclined to like either experimental literature or poetry, both rare things to find in any issue. Maybe the poetry's good, I don't know as I don't read it often enough to judge. As for the experimental stories...

It's an interesting issue from McSweeney's as always, with a number of hidden gems with innovative design work. Good stuff.