The Literary Fiction Shelf

You Have Reached Your Destination
Louise Marburg
Eastover Press https://eastoverpress.com/a-small-press-and-online-literary-journal 9781958094006, $20.00, PB, 168pp

https://www.amazon.com/You-Have-Reached-Your-Destination/dp/1958094005

Synopsis: "You Have Reached Your Destination" is a short story anthology by=
author Louise Marburg captures the turning points in the lives of twelve d= isparate women. Marburg's crisp, clear-eyed prose, infused with dark humor,=
reveals the inevitable collapse of pretension beneath the struggles of lon= eliness, death, and the all too human need to be seen.

The stories range from a pre-teen attempting to understand her father's sui= cide, to a ninety-year-old woman caught in shadows of past marital abuse. E= ach of the women profiled in Marburg's stories is made to confront the real= ity that change is the only certainty. This collection is arguably Marburg'=
s finest yet as she invites her readers to face themselves and their own li=
fe journeys with sympathy, humor, and courage.

Critique: Original, fascinating, deftly crafted, memorable, thoughtful and = thought-provoking, all of Louise Marburg's short stories comprising "You Ha=
ve Reached Your Destination" are especially recommended for personal, profe= ssional, community, and academic library Contemporary Literary Fiction coll= ections.

Editorial Note: Louise Marburg (http://louisemarburg.com) is the author of = two previous collections of stories, "The Truth About Me" and "No Diving Al= lowed". Her literary work has appeared in such journals as Narrative, Ploug= hshares, STORY, The Hudson Review, and many others. She has been supported =
by the Sewanee Writers' Conference, the Kenyon Writing Workshops, and the V= irginia Center for the Creative Arts.

Rocked in Time
Charles Degelman
Harvard Square Editions
2152 Beachwood Terrace, Hollywood, CA 90068
www.harvardsquareeditions.org
9781941861882, $22.95, PB, 408pp

https://www.amazon.com/Rocked-Time-Charles-Degelman/dp/1941861881

Synopsis: "Rocked in Time" by Charles Degelman slips behind the scenes of a=
blasphemous theater company hell-bent on toppling America's Vietnam-era es= tablishment with punch lines, pratfalls, and comic rebellion. Along the way=
, the protagonist pursues a love for the stage and a passion for resistance=
amid the tear-gassed campuses and burning cities of a nation at war with i= tself.

We've heard about the generation that changed the politics and culture of t=
he 1960s. But how did that rebellion change those who made it happen? "Rock=
ed in Time" delivers that tale from a unique theatrical perspective. - Tony=
Kahn, writer, producer, PBS, NPR

Critique: A fictional reflection of an historical era, "Rocked in Time" by = novelist Charles Degelman is a compelling and compulsive page turner of a r= ead that is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking. W compelling work o=
f historical/literary fiction, "Rocked in Time" is an especially and unrese= rvedly recommended addition to personal reading lists and community/academi=
c library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections.

Editorial Note: Charles Degelman (https://www.charlesdegelman.org) is an au= thor, performer, and producer living in Los Angeles. His recent novel, A Bo=
wl Full of Nails, set in the counterculture of the 1970s, collected a Bronz=
e Medal from the 2015 Independent Publishers Book Awards and was a finalist=
in the Bellwether Competition, sponsored by Barbara Kingsolver. His novel = Gates of Eden, set during the anti-war movement of the 1960s, won an Indepe= ndent Publishers book award, and his first screenplay, "FIFTY-SECOND STREET=
", garnered an award from the Diane Thomas Competition, sponsored by UCLA a=
nd Dreamworks. He is also on the Faculty of California State University whe=
re he teaches writing in the Television, Film, and Media Studies/Communicat= ions Studies program.

This Time, That Place: Selected Stories
Clark Blaise
Biblioasis
www.biblioasis.com
9781771964890, $19.99, PB, 416pp

https://www.amazon.com/This-Time-That-Place-Selected/dp/1771964898

Synopsis: "This Time, That Place: Selected Stories" draws together twenty-f= our short stories that span the entirety of Canadian/American author Clark = Blaise's career -- including one never previously published.

The stories move swiftly across place and time, through and between languag=
es ranging from Florida's Confederate swamps, to working-class Pittsburgh, =
to Montreal and abroad. They each demonstrate Blaise's impressive mastery o=
f the short story format and reveal the range of his lifelong preoccupation=
with identity as fallacy, fable, and dream.

Critique: With the publication of "This Time, That Place: Selected Stories = confirms", author Clark Blaise is clearly documented as being one of the be=
st and most enduring masters of the short story literary form. While very h= ighly recommended, especially for community, college, and university librar=
y short story anthology and literary fiction collections, it should be note=
d for personal reading lists that "This Time, That Place: Selected Stories"=
is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.49).

Editorial Note: Clark Blaise (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Blaise) i=
s the author of 20 books of fiction and nonfiction. A longtime advocate for=
the literary arts in North America, Blaise has taught writing and literatu=
re at Emory, Skidmore, Columbia, NYU, Sir George Williams, UC-Berkeley, SUN= Y-Stony Brook, and the David Thompson University Centre. In 1968, he founde=
d the postgraduate Creative Writing Program at Concordia University; he aft=
er went on to serve as the Director of the International Writing Program at=
Iowa (1990-1998), and as President of the Society for the Study of the Sho=
rt Story (2002-present). Internationally recognized for his contributions t=
o the field, Blaise has received an Arts and Letters Award for Literature f= rom the American Academy (2003), and in 2010 was made an Officer of the Ord=
er of Canada.

The Easy Life
Marguerite Duras, author
Emma Ramadan & Olivia Baes, translators
Bloomsbury Press
www.bloomsbury.com
9781635578515, $18.00, PB, 208pp

https://www.amazon.com/Easy-Life-Marguerite-Duras/dp/1635578515

Synopsis: Francine Veyrenattes is a twenty-five-year-old woman who already = feels like life is passing her by. After witnessing a series of tragedies o=
n her family farm, she alternates between intense grief and staggering bore= dom as she discovers a curious detachment in herself, an inability to navig= ate the world as others do.

Hoping to be cleansed of whatever ails her, she travels to the coast to vis=
it the sea. But there she finds herself unraveling, uncertain of what is in= side her. Lying in the sun with her toes in the sand by day while psycholog= ically dissolving in her hotel room by night, she soon reaches the peak of = her inner crisis and must grapple with whether and how she can take hold of=
her own existence.

Critique: "The Easy Life" by Marguerite Duras is a compelling examination o=
f a young woman's estrangement from the world and offers a memorable explor= ation of the depths of what it means to be human. With a special appeal to = readers with an interest in deftly crafted, eloquent, and original storytel= ling, and ably translated into English by the linguistic team of Emma Ramad=
an and Olivia Baes, "The Easy Life" is especially and unreservedly recommen= ded for community and academic library French/English Literary Fiction coll= ections.

Editorial Note #1: Marguerite Duras (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margueri= te_Duras) was one of France's most important and prolific writers. Born Mar= guerite Donnadieu in 1914 in what was then French Indochina, she went to Pa= ris in 1931 to study at the Sorbonne. During WWII she was active in the Res= istance, and in 1945 she joined the Communist Party. Duras wrote many novel=
s, plays, films, and essays during her lifetime. She is perhaps best known = for her internationally bestselling novel The Lover, which won the Prix Gon= court in 1984. She died in Paris in 1996.

Editorial Note #2: Emma Ramadan (http://emmaramadan.com) is a literary tran= slator of poetry and prose from France, North Africa, and the Middle East. = She is the recipient of a Fulbright, an NEA Translation Fellowship, the 201=
8 Albertine Prize, and the 2021 PEN Translation Prize.

Editorial Note #3: Olivia Baes (https://www.catranslation.org/person/olivia= -baes) is a Franco-American multidisciplinary artist who grew up between Fr= ance, Catalonia, and the United States. She holds a Master of the Arts in C= ultural Translation from the American University of Paris.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

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(dot) com

Anyone wanting to submit books for review consideration can send them to:

James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive
Oregon, WI 53575-1129

To submit reviews of any fiction or non-fiction books, email them to Frugal= muse (at) aol (dot) com (Be sure to include the book title, author, publish= er, publisher address, publisher website/phone number, 13-digit ISBN number=
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James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review

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