September 2023 MBR The Literary Fiction Shelf

The Literary Fiction Shelf

The Brothers Karamazov: A New Translation
Fyodor Dostoevsky, author
Michael R. Katz, translator
Liveright
c/o W. W. Norton & Company
500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110
www.wwnorton.com
9781631498190, $36.00, HC, 928pp

https://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Karamazov-Translation-Michael-Katz/dp/1631498193

Synopsis: Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky's final and arguably greatest novel, "The Brothers Karamazov", paints a complex and richly detailed portrait of a family tormented by its extraordinarily cruel patriarch, Fyodor Pavlovich, whose callous decisions slowly decimate the lives of his sons (the eponymous brothers Karamazov) and lead to his violent murder. In the aftermath of the killing, the brothers contend with dilemmas of honor, faith, and reason as the community closes in on the murderer in their midst.

Critique: With this new edition published Liveright and distributed for an American readership by W.W. Norton, acclaimed translator and academic Professor Michael R. Katz, renders this literary masterpiece's nuanced and evocative storytelling in a vibrant, signature prose style that captures all the power of Dostoevsky's original, including the clever humor, the rich emotion, the passion and the turmoil. This newly translated edition of "The Brothers Karamazov" will captivate (and unsettle) a new generation of readers. Also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $26.99), this massive saga is especially and unreservedly recommended for personal, community, college, and university library Russian/English literary studies collections and supplemental curriculum studies lists.

Editorial Note #1: Fyodor Dostoevsky (11 November 1821 - 9 February 1881) is a Russian writer who wrote The Brothers Karamazov, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, and many other novels.

Editorial Note #2: Michael R. Katz (https://lithub.com/author/michaelrkatz) is C. V. Starr Professor Emeritus of Russian and East European Studies at Middlebury College. He has published translations of more than fifteen Russian novels, including Crime and Punishment and Notes from Underground.

How Love Came to Professor Guildea and Other Uncanny Tales
Robert Hichens
Stark House Press
www.starkhousepress.com
9798886010510, $15.95, PB, 250pp

https://www.amazon.com/Professor-Guildea-Other-Uncanny-Tales/dp/B0BSHG1846

Synopsis: "How Love Came to Professor Guildea and Other Uncanny Tales" is comprised of seven classic short stories of occult fiction and supernatural mysteries by Robert Hichens including:

"How Love Came to Professor Guildea": Professor Guildea is an extremely unsentimental man - he doesn't need nor want anyone's affection. He has his work, and that is enough. Until one evening when he sees a figure in the park, and crosses the street to investigate. No one is there, and yet Guildea is convinced that someone follows him back into his house... a strange presence with a curious and very irritating attraction to him.

"A Tribute of Souls": Alistair Ralston, the young Laird of Carlounie, has a feeble soul matched to his pinched and pallid body. But his desires are Gargantuan, as is his hate for those more fortunate. And so one day he takes a book of magical incantations into the woods and makes a pact with the grey traveller: three souls to Satan in exchange for a renewed body. He is brought back to Carlounie in a fever. When he recovers, he is a new man - powerful, driven. It is time to use this power...

"The Lost Faith": Olivia has known most of her life that she has the power to heal. It all comes down to faith. After she heals young Fernol West - victim of a head injury - her fame spreads to England, where she and Fernol are hosted by the noted eccentric, Lord Sandring. When Olivia meets Sir Hector and is asked to cure his skeptical sister of her blinding headaches, her real test of faith begins.

These three (plus four more) original short stories are weird tales of the unexpected and introduce a whole new generation of appreciative readers to time-lost, long out of print literary treasures by a gifted 19th Century author.

Critique: Enhanced for readers with an informative Introduction by S. T. Joshi and a one page Robert Hichens Bibliography, "How Love Came to Professor Guildea and Other Uncanny Tales" is part of the Stark House Supernatural Classics series and an unreservedly recommended addition to personal, community, and academic library Literary Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "How Love Came to Professor Guildea and Other Uncanny Tales" is also now available in a digital book format (Kindle, $5.99).

Editorial Note: Robert Smythe Hichens was born on November 14, 1864, the son of a clergyman and his wife. As a teen he showed aptitude as a pianist and enrolled at the Royal College of Music, which he abandoned for the London School of Journalism. During this time he also published his first novel, The Coastguard's Secret, a story of murder, romance and the supernatural. In his late 20s he suffered a bout of poisoning, and decided to recuperate in Cairo. While there, he made several literary friends and was introduced to Oscar Wilde, who inspired his quintessential London fin-de-siecle satire, The Green Carnation. Hichens went on to write over fifty novels (exotic melodramas, mystery, romance) as well as nine story collections and several works of non-fiction on the Near East. Many of his novels were staged or turned into films, including The Paradine Case directed by Alfred Hitchcock. He died on July 20, 1959, in Switzerland, where he had moved for his health.

Ogden's Proverb
John McClusky
New Plains Press
https://newplainspress.com
9781734571974, $19.99, PB, 188pp

https://www.amazon.com/Ogdens-Proverb-John-McCluskey/dp/1734571977

Synopsis: During the years of The Great Depression, Ogden Skully's father, despite their being of modest means has high hopes for him to enroll in the elite Hamden Academy. But even though he seems accepted by his fellow classmates, Ogden (as a former public school student), doesn't feel like he fits in -- and then there is his troubled home life as an additional factor.

The there is Ogden's his first girlfriend, Chloe, a young lady from a wealthy oil family and the wannabe rebel Adam who considers Ogden to be a kindred spirit. As the two boys become friends, tragedy strikes the Hamden community, testing the last threads of Ogden's innocence.

Critique: In his novel, "Ogden's Proverb", novelist John McClusky skillfully creates an inherently eloquent and original 'coming of age' story that reflects how moments of the past can affect our views concerning our future anticipations. A deftly scripted and truly memorable read from start to finish, "Ogden's Proverb" is especially and unreservedly recommended for community library Literary Fiction collections. It should be noted for personal reading lists that "Ogden's Proverb" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $9.49).

Editorial Note: John McCluskey (www.johnmccluskeyauthor.com) is now retired and devotes full time to writing and photography. He writes mostly about family dynamics. An interview with him is available at: https://heatherlbarksdale.com/author-interview/john-mccluskey

Something Dead in Everything
Lannie Stabile
ELJ Editions
www.elj-editions.com
9781942004400, $20.00

https://www.amazon.com/Something-Dead-Everything-Lannie-Stabile/dp/1942004400

Flash fiction is exceptionally short fiction that packs a punch using as few words as possible. Lannie Stabile's works certainly fit that bill, as they offer diverse, digestible pieces that even the busiest reader can't claim to be too frenzied to absorb. The length of their presentation doesn't belay their impact. In fact, the collection opens with a trigger warning disclaimer: the contents include subject ranging from "domestic abuse, sexual assault, infanticide, SIDS, postpartum depression, death, murder, suicide, dismemberment, and profanity."

Fragile readers should look elsewhere, but those who find such subjects fodder for consideration and not a nervous breakdown will find them treated with astute and powerful insights under Stabile's hand. "To Wash and Dry a Vessel" opens the collection with an observational piece that introduces a simple ceramic mug of memories, a mother's most prized possession. The love for and ritual of using the mug follows the narrator throughout her childhood and into her mother's illness and subsequent death, when the mug appears to introduce the relief of a death after a long illness: "Death meant I could open the windows, let the fresh air in to sweep through the mummified halls. Death meant I could pause and breathe, and maybe even relax. Death meant I could say good-bye..."

As a haunted mug stirs memories, guilt, and brings new possibilities, readers are drawn into the life of a caregiver who finds herself marked and changed not just by death, but by life afterwards. "Dreamers with Empty Hands" is both in stark contrast and a familiar sigh of experience as the narrator shares close quarters with a couple and cultivates her own form of appreciation, angst, and longing from the experience: "I wish I could reach out and rest my hand on her shoulder, give it an empathetic squeeze. Show her someone's listening, someone cares, even if it's some lost soul with a permanent beehive congealed with blood."

Replete with themes of loss, love, discovery, and recovery, Something Dead in Everything represents vignettes of life experience and observation, blending powerful metaphorical images of the ghosts that hang around the living with the embedded sorrows and hopes of the living. These thought-provoking works of flash fiction deserve not only a place on literary shelves, but in the discussion groups of readers who would analyze and examine the presence of longing, love, and hope in life and death alike.

EDITOR'S NOTE:

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