Year of the LitMag: New England Review, Vol. 32, No. 3

[This is the 6th installment in my Year of theLitMag Feature. If you are interested in writing about an issue of a literarymagazine, please leave a comment or send me an email.]
There's a lot to absorb in the latest issue of New England Review, Vol. 32, No. 3,including seven stories, several essays, and lots of poems. NER is one of myfavorite literary magazines, and it shows up near the top of the rankings: #12in Fiction,# 45 in Nonfiction,and #7 in Poetry.
Since I keep sending them short stories (no luck yet), I'malways curious about the stories they publish. There's quite a range in thisissue, but there might be some characteristics that tie them together.
Let me start with James Magruder's "Matthew Aiken's VieBohème" since Jim is a friend (we were Fellows at Sewanee together and recently hadoverlapping residencies at VCCA). This story,from his novel in stories, Let Me See It,due out in May, is set in 1981, when Matthew Aiken, a young gay man, isstudying in Paris. He doesn't get along with his host family, the amusing andemotional Sirjean family, or with his roommate, Bruce. But he does manage tomeet a man at the Beaubourg, with unhappy (but amusing for the reader) results.Let me just say that I learned a new French word: la chtouille. Funny and sad, a terrific read.
I also really enjoyed Scott Southwick's "Time Keeps onSlipping, etc." in which time does, indeed, slip into the future, relentlessly.Nicky is in grade school and his babysitter tells him he has the most beautifuleyes. In high school he becomes a reporter for the student paper and histeacher remarks on his eyes. His father out of the picture, Nicky is on his ownwhen his mother dies suddenly, and the future is now. Fast forward . . . "BradPitt played him in the movie version." Nicky's life has its ups and downs andwe get them all in this quirky story.
"Confession, with Wolves" by Carol Keeley is a monologue, awife speaking to her husband about their marriage. As with most monologues,this one is about the voice, in this case an unreliable narrator confessing toher husband about her . . . transgressions. And, in the process, the presentcircumstances are revealed. It's an interesting technique, the monologue, andthis is a good one."Manga Dolls on Skype" by Sandra Leong was fun, but I wasrooting for it to turn out differently. Michael Coffey's "I Thought You WereDale" was funny, although it felt like there was an inside joke I was missing.(Also it's an odd structure—allsections and no paragraphs.) While most of the stories are funny, "Keeping anEye on Jakobson" by Anne Raeff is not. It's a straightforward dramatic storyabout, among other things, the sorrows of war.
And there's more, including poems by both the Director andthe Assistant Director of the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Michael Collierand Jennifer Grotz, which, like the New England Review, is also connected toMiddlebury College. There's a poem by Chelsea Rathburn, a friend from Sewanee.And there are several notable essays, including one by Michael Milburn about hisbrother Frank: "My Brother, the Writer." I especially enjoyed this because wepublished an essay by Milburn in Prime Number Magazine recently: "MyMemoir."
It's an excellent issue from a wonderful magazine.