PositiveBrooklyn Rail[A] provacative installment ... Deborah Levy possesses a sense of wavering some might render a trick or obsession with philosophical ambivalence. A spattering of contemporary writers abscond with such mimicry. Levy offers an honesty, which necessitates the modernist or post-World War II/post-Vietnam War style of ambiguity, rather than using the form as a gimmick. She takes the more noble route. Such is the hand of cards her generation of writers has been dealt. Her style takes its own form of real proper roots.
Fiona Alison Duncan
RaveThe Brooklyn RailWhile hilariously, sadly, and cinematically capturing an American generation of 20-somethings, not to mention a specifically Los Angeles stream of consciousness, it possesses a grounded historical order ... offers delightful contemporary context in which to restructure the ideas such that they can be \'ghosted\' by a whole generation of new readers and be entertained without having even read or studied such heavyweights as Lacan, de Beauvoir, Žižek, etc ... The novel subtly pulls the rug out from under the reader ... On the surface, the book seems comic. Yet as you fly through it, the breeze catches buzzing flies ... It’s raw association. It’s not SCUM Manifesto. It’s not New York. It’s not academic. It’s the new Los Angeles. It’s Das Capital in the hands of Louise Hay, with a little Hollywood ReFrame. Because Duncan is a promiscuous observer and reader, the book persists as polymorphous, entertaining, and compassionate.
Lucy Ives
RaveThe Brooklyn Rail[Ives\'s] newly published book, Loudermilk, a satire, explores a complex web of plot and episodes, thick descriptions, biting character arcs, poetic and philosophical precision, stylistically different stories/poems within stories, the nature of time, and the mirage of power (or the possibility of unveiling politics, and cracking open agency). By employing a classical theatrical technique of dramatis personae, rather than \'realistic\' novel characters, perhaps Ives is able to move between so many registers that enable her unusual \'mash-up\' to excel as at once philosophical and planted in the mud ... Ives’s style of satire shatters the dichotomy between meta-narrative and human empathy. Breaking such a distinction requires rare observational skill, patience, and multi-genre flexibility and curiosity ... \'the writer\' offers endless material for representational consideration ... Ives’s scrutiny offers clarity, punctual comic timing, and practiced contemplation.
Ed. by Michele Filgate
PositiveThe Brooklyn RailDespite the centuries old and universal topic of the mother-child relationship, the dyad of all dyads, Michele Filgate’s anthology reminds us the subject never grows stale. Rather it is perfectly-flavored dressing atop the most flavorful edible garden ... The [opening] essay sets a framework for a profound read by 15 gifted writers, and yet it is also hard to live up to ... Filgate does an excellent job of curating a diverse range of writers to capture just about anyone’s attention.
