Author Archives: Kasia Bartoszynska

Although the novel grabbed me from its opening sentence, it also sort of snuck up on me, in that I suddenly realized, as I was reading, that I cared an awful lot about the characters and what they were going through — they felt very real. This is especially impressive, because first-person narratives are rarelyContinueContinue reading “Fire Exit, Morgan Talty”

This is a really excellent, concise articulation of complex issues regarding our relationship to the history of slavery, past and present, and the challenges of learning from an archive. It would be a great book to give high schoolers, to invite them to engage critically with how slavery has been presented to them, and toContinueContinue reading “Wake, Rebecca Hall”

One of the students in my graphic novels class last semester recommended this to me, and it is awesome. Part portrait of an emerging artist, part road trip adventure story, part depression memoir, with this wonderfully playful punk rock sensibility. Anything can happen. I was moved, I cackled, and I said “woah!” in fairly equalContinueContinue reading “It’s Lonely at the Centre of the Earth, Zoe Thorogood”

I came to this book knowing absolutely nothing about Elaine May, and so I was, I suppose, very open to being persuaded that she is a misunderstood genius. I remember the Far Side comic about Ishtar (I had to ask my dad to explain it to me), and I guess I had uncritically accepted theContinueContinue reading “Miss May Does Not Exist, Carrie Courogen”

I was pleasantly surprised by how much my students enjoyed Adolphe. I thought they’d find it annoying and dull, but for the most part, they revelled in the philosophical melodrama just as I do — and the ones that didn’t seemed to warm to it in class discussion, as we started picking apart the centralContinueContinue reading “Adolphe, Benjamin Constant”

Is Achilles possible with powder and lead? Or the Iliad with the printing press, not to mention the printing machine? Do not the song and the saga and the muse necessarily come to an end with the printer’s bar, hence do not the necessary conditions of epic poetry vanish? But the difficulty lies not inContinueContinue reading “The Perfect Nine, Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o”

The rare contemporary novel that is not overhyped — it really is that good. It’s a brilliant and thought-provoking satire, a daring and complex speculative fiction, and also a wonderfully vivid and poignant story. I only distantly remember Huck Finn, so I couldn’t fully appreciate the interplay between the texts, but I relished the smartContinueContinue reading “James, Percival Everett”

This is a terrific book — a lucid, clear discussion of the various reasons people have for not wanting — or wanting! — children, but also, a really powerful account of just how much pressure women face to procreate. Olmo really nails the condescension people direct at anyone who confidently declares that they don’t wantContinueContinue reading “I Don’t Want to be a Mom, Irene Olmo”

When I was in Warsaw last summer, I noticed, perhaps for the first time, a monument smack dab in the middle of city center, across the street from a giant mall. What was so striking to me about it were the various layers of meaning: firstly, that it marked a spot where 102 people hadContinueContinue reading “Porcelain War”

I guess this was my subconscious way of going to New Orleans, since I’m missing MLA this year. This is a strange little novel — it’s a really cool invocation of place (19C NOLA), but not via sensory detail. It’s more like someone arriving to a new place and looking around and noticing all theContinueContinue reading “Season of the Swamp, Yuri Herrera, tr. Lisa Dillman”