May 2023 MBR The Literary Fiction Shelf

The Literary Fiction Shelf

The Fawn
Magda Szabo, author
Len Rix, translator
New York Review of Books
www.nybooks.com
9781681377377, $17.95, PB, 288pp

https://www.amazon.com/Fawn-Magda-Szab%C3%B3/dp/1681377373

Synopsis: Eszter, is an only child whose father an eccentric aristocrat and steeply downwardly mobile flower breeder. Her mother a harried music teacher failing to make ends meet. So Eszter grows up poor and painfully aware of it in a small provincial Hungarian town.

All this is before World War II, and Eszter, as she tells her story of childhood loneliness and hunger, has forgotten no slight and forgiven nobody, least of all her beautiful classmate Angela, whose unforced kindness to her left the deepest wound.

And yet Eszter, post-war (which is when she has come to remember all these things) is a star of the stage, now settled in Budapest, where Angela, a devout Communist married to an esteemed scholar and translator of Shakespeare, also lives.

"The Fawn" unfolds as Eszter's confession, filled with the rage of a lifetime and born, we come to sense, of irreversible regret. This is a tale of childhood, of the theater, of the collateral damage of the riven twentieth century, of hatred, and, in the end, a tragic tale of love.

Critique: In "The Door", in "Iza's Ballad", and in "Abigail", the late author Magda Szabo describes the complex relationships between women of different ages and backgrounds with an astute and unsparing eye. Now Eszter, the narrator and protagonist of "The Fawn", may well be Szabo's most fascinating literary creation. A fascinating, original, and eloquently crafted novel that is deftly translated into English by Len Rix for an American readership, "The Fawn" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community, college, and university library Literary Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "The Fawn" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $11.99).

Editorial Note #1: Magda Szabo (October 5, 1917 - November 19, 2007) is considered one of Hungary's greatest novelists. Her novels, dramas, essays, and poetry have been published in forty-two countries and in 2003 she was awarded the Prix Femina etranger for The Door. The NYRB Classics edition of The Door was selected as one of the The New York Times 10 Best Books of 2015. NYRB Classics also publishes Szabo's novels Iza's Ballad, Katalin Street, and Abigail. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magda_Szab%C3%B3)

Editorial Note #2: Len Rix (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Rix) is a poet, critic, and former literature professor. In 2006, he was awarded the Oxford-Weidendfeld Translation Prize for his translation of Magda Szabo's The Door.

Al-Qata'i: Ibn Tulun's City Without Walls
Reem Bassiouney, author
Roger Allen, translator
Georgetown University Press
3240 Prospect Street, NW, Washington, DC 20007
www.press.georgetown.edu
9781647122874, $29.95, HC, 456pp

https://www.amazon.com/Al-Qatai-Tuluns-City-Without-Walls/dp/1647122872

Synopsis: Brimming with intrigue, adventure, and romance, with the publication of "Al-Qata'i: Ibn Tulun's City Without Walls", novelist Reem Bassiouney tells the epic story of visionary Egyptian leader Ahmad Ibn Tulun who built Al-Qata'i (now Cairo) into a thriving multicultural empire.

The story begins with the rediscovery of the Ibn Tulun Mosque in 1918 and recounts Ibn Tulun's life and legacy in the ninth and tenth centuries. Bassiouney presents Ibn Tulun's benevolent vision to unify all Egyptians in a new city, Al-Qata'i. He becomes so focused on his vision, however, that he cannot see the impact it has on his family or the fate of Egypt. When a betrayal leads to his demise, the rival Abbasid caliph threatens to regain control of Al-Qata'i. In the aftermath of Ibn Tulun's death, his daughter Aisha emerges as a pivotal figure, bravely taking a stand against the Abbasids to preserve her life, the city, and the iconic mosque.

Critique: Reem Bassiouney is a contemporary and gifted Egyptian author that has his enthralled readers considering such universal themes as diversity and equality as viewed through historical and intercultural lenses that make his historical work of fiction one that will enrich his reader's understanding of these same issues as are presented in the contemporary world of today. Ably translated from Arabic into English for an American readership by Roger Allen, "Al-Qata'i: Ibn Tulun's City Without Walls" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community and academic library Literary Fiction collections. It should be noted for the personal reading lists of anyone with an interest in Ancient History/Romance fiction that "Al-Qata'i: Ibn Tulun's City Without Walls" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $22.49).

Editorial Note #1: Reem Bassiouney (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reem_Bassiouney) is an Egyptian author living in Cairo. She won the Naguib Mahfouz Award for best Egyptian novel for Sons of the People: The Mamluk Trilogy. She also won the 2009 Sawiris Foundation Literary Prize for Young Writers and the 2009 King Fahd Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies Translation of Arabic Literature Award.

Editorial Note: Roger Allen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Allen_(translator)) is an Arabic literature scholar and translator. He is credited with bringing Naguib Mahfouz to international recognition.

Crimes of the Tongue
Alicia Gaspar de Alba
Arte Publico Press
www.artepublicopress.com
9781558859579, $19.95, PB, 232pp

https://artepublicopress.com/product/crimes-of-the-tongue-essays-and-stories

Synopsis: Border dwellers struggle with place and identity in the short fiction comprising author Alicia Gaspar de Alba's short story collection "Crimes of the Tongue".

An El Paso-born American citizen with a high school diploma and a talent for writing seeks a job as a reporter at the El Paso Herald after World War I, but gets hired as a janitor and research specialist instead.

A Mexican woman takes her young daughter north to protect her from sexual abuse, only to leave the girl with relatives while she crosses the river in search of a job and a new life.

A college student gets a Tarot reading to help her discern the historical symbolism of her bicultural identity.

In her stories Alicia explores other "crimes of the tongue" in these essays showcasing pochismo, or the mixing of English and Spanish, as both a family taboo and a politics of identity; the haunting memory of La Llorona, protector of undocumented immigrants and abandoned children, and her blood-curdling cry of loss and revenge; the intersection of the personal and the political in the transgressive work of Chicana/Latina artists; the sexual and linguistic rebellions of La Malinche and Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz; and the reverse coyote, or border crossing, of Chicana lesbian feminist theory translated into Spanish and visual art as a way of sneaking this counterhegemonic pocha poetic thought into Mexico.

These essays and stories are always intellectually rigorous and often achingly personal.

Critique: Fascinating, original, memorable, entertaining, thought-provoking, "Crimes of the Tongue" Essays and Stories" by Alicia Gaspar de Alba will be of particular appeal to readers with an interest in the art of the essay and LGBTQ issues. "Crimes of the Tongue" is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, college, and university library Contemporary Literary Fiction collections and reading lists.

Critique: Alicia Gaspar de Alba (https://aliciagaspardealba.com) has won numerous awards for her fiction, poetry and essays, including the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education Book Award for [Un]Framing the "Bad Woman" (2015), the El Paso Community College Literary Legacy Award (2014), the Lambda Literary Award for Best Lesbian Mystery for Desert Blood (2005), the Latino Literary Hall of Fame Award for Best Historical Fiction for Sor Juana's Second Dream (2000) and the Rudolfo and Patricia Anaya Premio Aztl n for Emerging Chicano/a Fiction Writers (1994). She has published more than a dozen books with mainstream, academic and independent presses. She has been a professor of Chicana/o and Central American Studies, English and Gender Studies at UCLA since 1994.

Hollyland
Patricia Leavy
She Writes Press
www.shewritespress.com
9781647422967, $17.95, PB, 224pp

https://www.amazon.com/Hollyland-Novel-Patricia-Leavy/dp/1647422965

Synopsis: What happens when a seemingly ordinary woman with a passion for the arts falls in love with a Hollywood star known for his bachelor status and quick temper with the paparazzi?

Something extraordinary.

Dee Schwartz is a writer and arts researcher. Ryder Field is a famous actor descended from Hollywood royalty. On the night they meet outside a bar, their connection is palpable. Ryder's mother (legendary actress Rebecca Field, half of Hollywood's golden couple when she died) was kidnapped and murdered by a crazed fan in a shocking event that forever tarnished Tinseltown.

Dee's mother, too, died when she was young. Bonded by this loss, the two embark on a love story that explores their search for magic (or "gold dust") in their lives. Everything changes, however, when Dee mysteriously disappears after an awards ceremony. Is history repeating itself? Can there truly be a happily ever after in Hollywood?

Critique: Written with the kind of eloquence associated with award winning literary fiction, "Hollyland" by Patricia Leavy is told against the backdrop of contemporary Los Angeles, An impressively poignant, laudably original, and thoroughly entertaining novel that moves fluidly between romance, humor, suspense, and joy, "Hollyland" is one of those stories that will linger in the mind and memory long after the book itself has been finished and set back upon the shelf. While highly recommended for personal reading lists and community/academic library Literary Fiction collections, it should be noted for fans of contemporary romance and romantic suspense that "Hollyland" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.49).

Editorial Note: Patricia Leavy (www.patricialeavy.com) was formerly an Associate Professor of Sociology, Chairperson of Sociology & Criminology, and Founding Director of Gender Studies at Stonehill College. She has published more than forty books; her work has been translated into many languages, and she has received more than forty book honors. She has also received career awards from the New England Sociological Association, the American Creativity Association, the American Educational Research Association, the International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry, and the National Art Education Association. In 2018, she was honored by the National Women's Hall of Fame and SUNY-New Paltz established the "Patricia Leavy Award for Art and Social Justice".

Dioramas
Blair Austin
Dzanc Books
https://www.dzancbooks.org
9781950539758, $16.95, PB, 310pp

https://www.amazon.com/Dioramas-Blair-Austin/dp/195053975X

Synopsis: In a city far in the future, in a society that has come through a great upheaval, retired lecturer Wiggins moves from window to window in a museum, intricately describing each scene. Whales gliding above a shipwreck and a lost cup and saucer. An animatronic forest twenty stories tall. urban wolves in the light of an apartment building. A line of mosquitoes in uniforms and regalia, honored as heroes of the last great war.

Bit by bit, Wiggins unspools the secrets of his world -- the conflict that brought it to the brink, and the great thinker, Michaux, who led the diorama revolution, himself now preserved under glass.

After a phone call in the middle of the night, Wiggins sets out to visit the Diorama of the Town: an entire, dioramic world, hundreds of miles across, where people are objects of curiosity, taxidermied and posed. All his life, Wiggins has longed to see it. But in the Town, he comes face to face with the diorama's contradictions. Its legacy of political violence. Its manipulation by those with power and money. And its paper-thin promise of immortality.

Critique: "Dioramas" by author Blair Austin is a kind of hybrid novel -- part essay, part prose poem, part travel narrative. Original, imaginative, exceptionally well written, and an inherently interesting read, and particularly impressive when considering that this is Austin's debut as a novelist, "Dioramas" will have a very special appeal to readers with an interest in deftly crafted dystopian fiction. While highly recommended for community and academic library Science Fiction and Literary Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that 'Dioramas" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.49).

Editorial Note: A former correctional librarian, Blair Austin (https://www.youtube.com) was born in Michigan and attended the Helen Zell Writers' Program, where the seed novel for Dioramas won a Hopwood Award.

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