Granta 159 - What Do You See?

Granta: The Magazine of New Writing #159

by Sigrid Rausing

This spring issue features award-winning writer William Atkins on the proposed nuclear power station Sizewell C, and introduces exciting new voices Lars Horn and Rebecca Sollom. In travel writing, Granta 159 has Jason Allen-Paisant on Haiti and Ishion Hutchinson on Senegal, as well as memoir by Kevin Childs, Geoff Dyer and Alejandro Zambra (tr. Megan McDowell).

With fiction by Adam Foulds, Andrew Holleran and Maxim Osipov (tr. Alex Fleming), and photoessays by Phalonne Pierre Louis, Raphaela Rosella introduced by Nicole R. Fleetwood and Muhammad Salah introduced by Esther Kinsky.

Genres: Short Stories, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

Published April 28, 2022

About the author

Sigrid Rausing is Editor and Publisher of Granta magazine and Publisher of Granta and Portobello Books. She is the author of History, Memory and Identity in Post-Soviet Estonia: The End of a Collective Farm and Everything is Wonderful, which has been translated into four different languages.

Reviews

[Paul Dembina · Rating 4 out of 5]

My average rating for Granta probably hovers just above a 3 but that's just because invariably they contain a mixed bag of pieces some of which I'll prefer over others. This edition had a higher proportion of items that were more of interest to me.

Highlights were William Atkins piece on Sizewell C, Lars Horn's bizarre non fiction about her artist mother using Lars for photographic set pieces where Lars had to play dead. Also liked Alejandro Zambra's memoir looking back to a time when he and his father were mugged.

[Chris]

I dutifully read this issue. Presented this quarter without an introduction, The issue truly begged the question on its cover, “What Do You See?” There were several engaging articles and stories. I wondered if the prominence of obviously non-binary and gay writers was intentional and intentionally left unremarked upon (What Do You See?). Notable were William Atkins on the reckless, but nevertheless fulfilled, efforts to install a nuclear power plant in a location unsuitable for such, Lars Horn’s “ My Mother Photographs Me In A Bath Of Dead Squid”, Rebecca Sollom on the Queen-as-classmate, and Andrew Holleran’s “The Kingdom Of Sand” about growing up in Florida, because Florida is a state rich in wonder, the absurd, horror, and relatives.

[Hans Otterson]

Every single piece of fiction in here reads like a fragment, a tone-poem that whispers with the promise of something more (well, something at all).

Flip to the back to read the bios and come to find out they're all excerpts. I feel cheated. Who wants fragments? Publish ffiction. ZYZZYVA is a far far better literary journal.

The nonfiction pieces are all basically cooked in the same tepid water as each other.

[Peter J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Granta, have them all. Though since issue 163 I had to switch to digital only, reading online, as postal delivery had become too unreliable :-(.
Some reading, some stories, or is it writers, are really weird. Don't you think?
Interesting W. Atkins on the Sizewell C story, unknown situation to me. Relevant as the EU and others are thinking to switch to micro nuclear power stations. The future?

[Ray Quirolgico · Rating 5 out of 5]

This issue of Granta felt like a return to the reasons I subscribe: the stories were all recollections and each one conveyed emotions that were somber, familiar, disquieting, reflective, conflicted, all at once. These memories demonstrated the complexities of human experiences in tightly edited short forms that were beautifully collected.

[Bridget Bonaparte · Rating 4 out of 5]

The photography project on carceral mother daughter relationships was so beautiful and so devastating it took me a year to go through it without crying. Great travel writing on Haiti great photos of port au prince at night—thank you Lucy Diver for the copy!!!

[Johan Sanders · Rating 4 out of 5]

Een nummer met voor mij een aantal goede teksten; oa van Kevin Childs, Lars Horn, Alejandro Zambra en vooral van Rebecca Sollom (National Dress).

[Blank · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Holleran excerpt is interesting. Most everything else is forgettable. I find it hard to believe these were the best submissions for this issue when the writing is so monotonous.

[Pan Jie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This literary magazine somehow manages to be both overly-intellectual and not-intellectual-enough at the same time. Best enjoyed with a pour-over and a beret on your over-sized head.

[Andrew Neely · Rating 4 out of 5]

National Dress slams.