Stunning, at times shocking ... Not all of Eisenberg’s stories are successful ... I began Fat Swim in a state of unease, feeling assaulted by the in-your-faceness of Eisenberg’s voice and style. Gradually, as with Miranda July’s All Fours, I let down my guard and became intrigued ... There is pain in all of these stories, many of them tales of queer love and a quest to be seen and understood. But there is also glee, a sense of liberation that in the end, is infectious.
Color me refreshed ... In Eisenberg’s care, Black bodies, trans bodies, old bodies, thin bodies, brown bodies, and fat bodies are all miracles worthy of honor ... Authentic and generous ... Eisenberg offers her characters a rare, godlike grace ... A quietly radical collection ... She does not sentimentalize her characters, nor does she punish them. They are not symbols of their marginalization or privilege; they are people whose positionality is one fact among many. Eisenberg simply allows her characters to endure, to notice things, to say the unsayable, to be desired and difficult and unresolved.
