RaveNew City LitDelightful...delicious ... A cozy reading experience that feels like a step back to the Golden Age of Broadway. It’s also a wonderful source of Broadway gossip ... A long-overdue contribution to the Broadway memoir canon. Though Rodgers might not have considered herself progressive in the day—to her chagrin, the three-and-a-half years between her marriages felt like the longest of her life—her memoir is an illuminating look at Golden Age Broadway from a woman’s perspective.
Tess Gunty
RaveNew City LitThe many elements at play here—horror, mysticism, beauty and humor—set us up for the bizarre, enticing story to come ... Though these characters might sound as if they belong in a black comedy, Gunty clearly does not see them that way. Instead, she showers her characters with deep compassion and empathy ... There is nothing snarky about Gunty’s tone, and even if she is unafraid to experiment ... Gunty also extends Vacca Vale a similar grace as her characters. This is not the flyover, Trumpian wasteland dismissed in the media, but a place with its own rich identity ... Not all aspects of the characters ring entirely true, and their sprawling monologues can feel authorially crafted. The rabbit imagery can also feel overused. But due to Gunty’s writerly confidence, it’s easy to justify these moments as a conscious choice in style. This is a novel for both the hopeless and hopeful, and though Gunty does not spare us from the violence of humanity, she understands that it does not define us exclusively. As a writer, Gunty is both deft and versatile. Though she may be unknown to most of her readers, The Rabbit Hutch already feels like something only Tess Gunty could write.
Jem Calder
PositiveNew City Lit... [Calder] has a pleasing voice that is wholly his own, and at its best, comes across as academic or even voyeuristic ... He’s not afraid to be funny or to err toward satire...This makes Calder’s lyrical moments more intimate and satisfying ... Whereas many emerging writers overuse lyricism and count on it to do the legwork for them, Calder understands that it is more effective to use it sparingly ... It would be wrong, however, to say that Reward System does not fall into other pitfalls. The story’s central themes—relationships, technology and aimlessness—have appeared elsewhere and seem almost central to the literary millennial experience. Similarly, there is a familiar opaqueness to Calder’s writing, and certain details, such as the name of the city in which it is set, are left unspecified. I’m a reader who prefers specifics, and I found myself wondering to what end this vagueness was serving.
Kaitlyn Tiffany
PositiveNew City Lit... a smart, empathetic work of nonfiction that examines young women and the ways they have innovated digital spaces ... Tiffany upends our biases about fangirls and shows them as the creative, tongue-in-cheek, freethinking individuals that they are ... When it comes to her personal connection with fandom, Tiffany is honest and forthcoming ... Though Everything I Need is primarily a critical examination, Tiffany’s self-effacing tone and sly humor cast her as a worthy memoirist as well ... Indeed, much of the book’s strength comes from its personal accounts ... To show that fangirls have invented the internet is a lofty task, especially for something as multifaceted as the internet. While she makes well-argued points about how women and minority groups have changed the interfaces and user experiences of today’s social media platforms, Tiffany’s experiences with the internet may not be yours. I found specific examples, such as the way Black Twitter innovated the platform, more persuasive in their own contexts than against the broader thesis. Everything I Need is the most compelling when it captures fangirls, both online and off.
Diana Goetsch
RaveNew City LitBy devoting so much space to her life pre-transition, Goetsch muddies the assumption that a clear delineation exists between life before transition and after. Goetsch’s journey is full of stops and starts, and it is neither as repressed nor as conclusive as we may imagine ... Although Goetsch finds ways to give us the essentials, she often gives us gaps on purpose, and this creates tension that spurs us on to read further ... The term \'compulsively readable\' conjures up so-called light reads, but in this case, the readability of This Body I Wore in no way takes away from the emotionally charged material nor the complex questions it raises. Befitting of a former English teacher, Goetsch’s prose is clean and meticulous, and she is a demanding narrator, both of herself and of us. This is an extraordinary read that only deepens over time. Goetsch always does justice to the complexities in question, even if it means exposing her deepest flaws and insecurities. Reading This Body I Wore is an emotional experience, and the various complexions and contradictions are felt just as viscerally as they are intellectually. Intellect, after all, can only take us so far, and life’s deepest truths are felt, not reasoned. In this way, Goetsch invites readers to take the rein and to both physically embody her experiences and make our own discoveries.
Melissa Chadburn
RaveNew City LitUnforgettable opening paragraph ... This is a novel equal parts spellbinding and disturbing ... Bold debut ... A Tiny Upward Shove is a slow, measured novel, unconcerned with traditional pacing or plot ... Some of the novel’s most memorable moments come from Chadburn’s willingness to take her time ... Her descriptions of food are also vivid and moving ... These pleasurable moments contrast with the novel’s more difficult scenes ... But although A Tiny Upward Shove has a crucial message about those denied by society, it should not be taken as an allegory. To categorize the novel is to rob it of its complexity and power. A Tiny Upward Shove is best appreciated by letting its language sing.
Marcial Gala, tr. Anne Kushner
PositiveNew City Lit... a strange, dazzling novel that is as difficult to categorize as its protagonist ... Kushner preserves Gala’s lyricism and playfulness ... At times, it can be a dizzying read. Gala alternates between past, present and future tenses, and neither timeline—fighting in Angola or Rauli’s adolescence in Cienfuegos—is told sequentially, mimicking Rauli’s sense of time’s fluidity. Not much happens in terms of plot, and the poet Gala often leans into repetition. We are told the same things many times and sometimes in similar ways, which some might find frustrating. But for patient readers invested in language, Call Me Cassandra is both a thought-provoking meditation on myths and its own venture into mythmaking.
