The Paris Review, Issue 235, Winter 2020

by Emily Nemens (Editor)

Edward Hirsch on the Art of Poetry: "Writing is a bit like psychoanalysis. You're supposed to go where it's psychically troubling." Suzan-Lori Parks on the Art of Theater: "All writing, for me, is a relationship. I don't feel like I can do whatever I want with whomever I want. It's call-and-response."

Plays by David Adjmi, Kirk Lynn, and Claudia Rankine.

Fiction by György Dragomán, Jack Livings, and Dantiel W. Moniz.

Poetry by Rae Armantrout, Rita Dove, and Natalie Shapero.

An essay by Melissa Febos.

A portfolio by Erin O'Keefe.

Genres: Short Stories, Poetry, Fiction

268 pages, Perfectbound

First published December 1, 2020

About the author

Emily Nemens’s debut novel, The Cactus League, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and named one of NPR’s and Lit Hub’s favorite books of 2020. Her stories have appeared in BOMB, The Gettysburg Review, n+1, and elsewhere; her illustrations have appeared in The New Yorker and in collaboration with Harvey Pekar. Nemens spent over a decade editing literary quarterlies, including leading The Paris Review and serving as co-editor and prose editor of The Southern Review. She held the 2022–23 Picador Professorship (University of Leipzig) and teaches in the MFA program at Bennington College. She lives in central New Jersey with her husband and dog.

Reviews

[Amie]

Thank you, Claudia Rankine. Thank you, Melissa Febos for
The Mirror Test. Thank you, Jeff Fernside, for Once, which was the best poem for me in the whole issue. The interview with Suzan-Lori Parks was amazing. And thanks Jack Livings for the story.

[Wendy Liu]

Really enjoyed this issue. Wish I had someone to talk to about it, especially the last two plays.

[Margaret Adams]

I especially liked the excerpt from Claudia Rankine’s play “Help,” the excerpt from David Adjmi’s play “The Stumble, Dantiel W. Moniz’s story “The Loss of Heaven,” and Melissa Febos’s essay “The Mirror Test.”

[Kaiju Reviews · Rating 4 out of 5]

This issue's focus on drama didn't work for me until I unpacked what turned out to be an expectation that it wouldn't work for me...

In fact, I really liked "The First Line of Dante's 'Inferno'", thought "The Stumble" was okay (probably better performed), and enjoyed the interview with Suzan-Lori Parks.

So the drama part that I didn't like turned out to be only one piece.

The Edward Hirsch interview forced me to go out and buy his book, and bring it into my overflowing library, adding it to my too-tall 'currently reading' stack. So I guess I liked that interview well enough.

Puppet Theatre and River Crossing were both excellent stories, and both new and fresh for PR. So much appreciated there.

Arthur Sze's poem Dilemma, Peter Balakian's Shadow Grid were both excellent. D.H. Tracey, Noah Warren, and a chilling poem by Natalie Shapero also stood out for me.

The Mirror Test contained moments of brilliance.

All in all, another great issue. I should remember to keep my expectations out in the light where I can clearly see them before they sneak up and say something I don't agree with.

[Jade Wootton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Highlights for me were Dantiel W. Moniz’s “The Loss of Heaven,” Jack Livings’ “River Crossing,” and the excerpt from Kirk Lynn’s play “The First Line of Dante’s ‘Inferno.’” As always with the Paris Review, there’s some good, at times even great, pieces and many mediocre pieces. Overall, though, I enjoyed this issue far more than the last.

[Maria Lianou · Rating 4 out of 5]

What I enjoyed from this issue were (1) Mirror Test by Melissa Febos, (2) the poem Once by Jeff Fearnside, (3) The Puppet Theater by Gyorgy Dragoman, (4) Claudia Rankin's Help, and the two interviews with Edward Hirsch and Suzan-Lori Parks.

[Torben]

My Highlights (excluding the always excellent interviews)
Subhashini Kaligotla - Requiem
Peter Balakian - Shadow Grid
Noah Warren - Two Poems
Melissa Febos - The Mirror Test
Jack Livings - River Crossing

[Chris Lee-Francis]

Less standout than previous issues, but still another fine selection of writing and insight.

[Erik · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked fiction by Dantiel W. Moniz and Jack Livings - I’m interested to try both of their new books. Didn’t get much out of the rest of this one, unfortunately.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like what they try to do with this issue on theater but frankly found the pieces dull and way too focused on American topics/soul searching.

[Kurishin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The theater focus...the effort to provide readable plays was there and I understand the desire to change the content up a bit but parts were unreadable/skimmable and that results in 2 stars.

[Jacqueline Nyathi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of wondrous writing!

[Veronica Ciastko · Rating 3 out of 5]

this volume was fine, or whatever. the essay by Melissa Febos, about the word “slut”, was fantastic. some good poems. i had a lot of trouble getting on board with this issue because the first piece in it, an excerpt from a forthcoming play by Claudia Rankine, was so, so bad—i mean the worst kind of cliched, performative nonsense—that i doubted nearly everything else that was written.

[Jason]

I quite enjoyed both the interviews in this issue. Parks I've read a lot of back for a theater degree, so that was a nice reminder of her work and its influence in my life. I haven't read much Hirsch, but the interview made me want to read A Poet's Glossary. "Writing is a bit like psychoanalysis. You're supposed to go where it's psychically troubling. It takes a certain kind of recklessness to face oneself. The more upsetting it is, the more you're supposed to fly toward it, like a moth to the flame."

I enjoyed Elly Bookman's Nocturne poem and Jack Livings' short story. River Crossing stuck with me.

[Lucian Childs · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some time now, I’ve been writing tight little stories about characters who have tight little narrative arcs. Does that make me an uptight writer? Possibly. But I like these roman candles that go airborne with a bang, arc and fizzle out. Beginning, middle and end. Presenting problem. Impediment. Something that goes aha at the finish.

In contrast is writing that is loose, that wanders. Plot’s not really its thing. Not necessarily stream-of-consciousness, but close.

I dusted off No. 235 from my stack of unread copies of The Paris Review and found that most of the prose pieces in this issue were like the latter. I say pieces, since a lot of them are play excerpts that fragment and recombine like dreams, where, as one of the issue’s authors says, “people vanish and appear like magic.”

In “Help,” a black woman confronts othering and privilege in her encounters with white men. “The Stumble” is built around witty conversations that the composer Oscar Levant has in his head with George Gershwin. In “The First Line of Dante’s Inferno,” a woman searches for her sister in a forest that may very well be her own mind.

The fiction in the issue has an equally absurdist bent, although, it being fiction, one more grounded in specificity. The standout for me is, oddly enough, not the most conventional of the three pieces (“The Loss of Heaven”), but the speculative “River Crossings.” It’s an absurdist parable that mirrors our present predicament in a tribalized America: a people long separated who no longer recognize each other.

The Paris Review Interviews are the literary equivalent of a national treasure. In this issue, the playwright Suzan-Lori Parks stands out for me—a writer who often doubts himself—as a role model because of her prodigious output and work ethic. Her admonition is one I need to hear: just get out of your own way, answer The Call of The Spirit and let your words roll. { Cross-posted at my website. }

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