Author: Siel

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October book reviews: Where lieth freedom?

Brief reviews of books by contemporary authors I read this month — along with photos of what I ate while reading. The list is ordered by the level of my enjoyment:

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (McClelland and Stewart, 1985)

“I hunger to commit the act of touch.”
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For those who still aren’t familiar with the story, here’s a summary: The U.S. has been taken over by a religious regime — that has subjugated women into servile, domestic roles. The story’s told by Offred, a “handmaid,” aka a woman forced to have ritualistic sex with a high-ranking official in the regime for the purposes of reproduction, as birth rates have been plummeting for social and environmental reasons.

I first read this classic as a first-year undergrad — and as always seems to happen whenever I reread a book, Margaret’s work spoke to me in completely different ways this time around. I was especially struck this time by the ways the regime justifies its curtailing of women’s freedoms, arguing that women have it better under the regime, since they’re protected from sexual assault and harassment, as well as from the harsh judgments and expectations about their appearance. The argument is that women under the regime just have different sorts of freedoms — and as a result are perhaps more free — an interesting idea in juxtaposition to the current #metoo movement that very much speaks to the ways women’s freedoms are curtailed in today’s society.

It recalled for me Elif Batuman’s New Yorker essay, “The Head Scarf, Modern Turkey, and Me,” in which she comes to this conclusion about the choices and freedoms that women in the U.S. enjoy, versus the ones in Turkey who take more traditional roles (and wear their head scarves): “Nobody has everything; everyone is trading certain things for others.” Here’s an excerpt:

I found myself thinking about high heels. High heels were painful, and, for me at least, expensive, because they made walking more difficult and I ended up taking more taxis. Yet there were many times when I wore heels to work-related events in New York, specifically because I felt it made people treat me with more consideration. Why, then, would I refuse to wear a head scarf, which brought a similar benefit of social acceptance, without the disadvantage of impeding my ability to stand or walk?

The whole essay’s worth a read. I’m not sure where I’m going with this, beyond saying that I’d love to have a conversation about this. Someone should create a MOOC with The Handmaid’s Tale, Michel Houellebecq’s Submission, and Elif’s essay on the syllabus. Also, the Hulu series is fabulous.

All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg (HMH 2017)

“For so long I have believed I could never catch up, but now I realize there’s nothing to catch up to, there’s only what I choose to make.”
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This novel about a single woman in NYC felt so intimate and vulnerable and gritty in its exploration of desire and want and artistic ambition and human connection. It’s a book I needed to read — at this time when I feel perpetually behind on everything —

Hunger: A Memoir of My Body by Roxane Gay (Harper, 2017)

“What I know and what I feel are two very different things.”
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Roxane’s raw memoir is a must read. A tad repetitive, yes, but so honest — I learned so much, I became more empathetic about the many physical and societal issues that confront bigger people on a daily basis that I’d never even considered, and I related a lot in many unexpected ways. It’s so true — We can know a lot of things intellectually, but the knowing that comes through feeling can be something else altogether.

Transit by Rachel Cusk (FSG, 2017)

“Writing was just a way of taking justice into your own hands. If you wanted the proof, all you had to do was look at the people who had something to fear from your honesty.”
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I read Rachel Cusk’s novel in a day. There’s something about her largely plotless story of a female writer having conversations with people she comes across that propels you forward — the quiet philosophical insights, the revelations about humanity, all our little motivations and rationalizations about what’s ok and what’s not, who to be, how to live. Many of the conversations hinged on moments of epiphany — a seemingly innocuous event that suddenly makes you see everything differently and decide to completely overhaul your life.

Quartet by Jean Rhys (Chatto and Windus as Postures, 1928)
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“Her life swayed regularly, even monotonously, between two extremes, avoiding the soul-destroying middle.”
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I picked this up after loving Jean Rhys’s Good Morning, Midnight last month — and I think my expectations were a bit too high because I didn’t love this one as much — though Quartet is still a worthy read. The novel tells the story of Marya, a young, newly married British woman in Paris — whose husband is good to her but is an outlaw type and sent to jail for a year. Penniless and bereft, Marya then needs to figure out how to survive in Paris but mostly just drinks a lot. Depression ensues….

The Candidate by Zareh Vorpouni (Originally published 1967; English translation from Syracuse UP, 2016)

The Candidate follows a young Armenian expat in 1929 Paris, reeling from the sudden suicide of his friend. The poetic work covers a lot of ground — the Armenian diaspora, racism, writerly ambition, poverty. It made personal the international aftereffects of the Armenian genocide and combined it with the beautiful listlessness of artistic life in 1920s Paris. I came to this book via Boxwalla.

Testify by Douglas Manuel (Red Hen, 2017)

“No, the present presses and mints / the past into a gold coin / you can’t spend anywhere.”
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Douglas Manuel’s poems explore uncomfortable boundaries — navigating a black identity across and in between class, race, and gender expectations. Doug and I will be reading together at the Red Hen Press event at Lit Crawl LA, happening Wed 10/25 in North Hollywood!

Handiwork by Amaranth Borsuk (Slope Editions, 2012)

“Imagine this longing not yet known: it cant be wrung: it will only get longer.”
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My grad school friend Amaranth’s poems fuse personal and cultural histories, combining the unpublished story of Amaranth grandmother with the Jewish practice of gematria with the periodic table. If you love constraint-based poetry, pick up this precisely-crafted volume.

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Get more and more timely book reviews from me on Instagram. And if you have books to recommend, send me a note!

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Boxwalla: A Book box for world literature lovers

If you want to read more international writers, but don’t know where to start, try a Boxwalla Book Box. This subscription box service promises to send you two new reads at a time — featuring writers from all over the world.

Boxwalla’s picks seem pretty idiosyncratic and, in general, lesser known. “All of them are must-read but not as widely read as they deserve to be,” claims the website. A recent Boxwalla Instagram post highlighted the writers from Asia featured so far, ranging “from the classicism of Tanizaki, to the experimental fiction of Can Xue and to the deceptively simple poetry of Ko Un.” I hadn’t even heard of any of these writers!

Was I missing out? Out of curiosity, I tried out a Boxwall Book Box earlier this year.

The first thing I discovered when it arrived: Though called a Book Box, there is no actual box. Instead, the two books are simply slipped into a drawstring bag, along with a letter insert with an intro to the month’s theme, authors, and the books.

The theme for my box was “Language and Identity,” and featured Armenian writer Zareh Vorpouni’s The Candidate and Jewish-American writer Cynthia Ozick’s The Puttermesser Papers. I’d never heard of these writers before either!

My favorite of the two was The Candidate, which follows a young Armenian expat in 1929 Paris, reeling from the sudden suicide of his friend. The poetic work covers a lot of ground — the Armenian diaspora, racism, writerly ambition, poverty. It made personal the international aftereffects of the Armenian genocide and combined it with the beautiful listlessness of artistic life in 1920s Paris —

I wasn’t as taken with The Puttermesser Papers, stories that follow a woman called Ruth Puttermesser through her odd little foibles, highlighting Jewish myths and traditions. Though it got great reviews and was nominated for a National Book Award, I ended up abandoning this book about half way in — It just didn’t hold my interest.

Overall I’m touched with Boxwalla’s mission to highlight books that deserve more attention. Each month’s selection takes you to a new place, so I imagine longer-term subscribers would become much more aware of world history and cultures over time.

A subscription costs $29.95 a shipment, and you can sign up now to get the December box — or more accurately, bag. Boxwalla also offers Green Beauty, Artisanal Food, International Film boxes — which appear to arrive in an actual box.

Earlier:
* The TNB Book Club: Get literary gems delivered to your door for under $10
* The Book Drop: Handpicked reads delivered from an indie bookstore

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Santa Monica Review’s Andrew Tonkovich on dream jobs, dream worlds

Every month, I interview an author I admire on his literary firsts–except this month, I’m interviewing an editor.

Editing a literary journal, I think, requires a certain level of masochism. We’re talking, after all, about publications with teeny tiny readerships that nonetheless get deluged with thousands of submissions from would-be contributors, most of whom haven’t bothered to pick up a single issue of the journal. Editors have to slog through this massive slush pile day after day — usually for little to no pay — with few thanks and many complains from writers, both accepted writers who think they should be paid or paid more for their contribution (but with what money?) and rejected writers who decry your form rejection notes as impersonal and callous and demand personal letters that explain why you said no to their work (but with what time?).

Or maybe editing a literary journal just requires a lot of commitment–to writers, to readers, to literature, and to the community that, over time, coalesces around the journal.

Santa Monica Review‘s one journal that’s been sustaining its community for nearly 30 years now. And since 1998, Andrew Tonkovich, editor and sole employee–save the occasional volunteer–has been reading nearly every submission.

Yes, Andrew himself reads the 50 or so submissions that come in each week. From those, he picks 30 a year to publish in the journal’s fall and spring issues.

In this interview, Andrew talks about how a literary mentorship changed his life and what commitment means to him.
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Siel: So — how does one become the editor of a literary journal? Or more to the point — What was your journey to becoming the editor of Santa Monica Review?

Andrew: I was, with my wife Lisa Alvarez, a student-writer in Jim Krusoe’s legendary (!) creative writing workshop for many years in the eighties. It was, continues to be, the best thing that happened to me (and, I believe, so many) by way of mentorship, careful reading, urgent engagement with all kinds of literature and of course encouragement from a terrific writer and committed, serious students.

After entering the MFA program at UC Irvine, I eventually moved to Orange County (where Lisa had accepted a Senate faculty position at a local community college) and reluctantly left the Santa Monica College workshop. Weirdly, I started team-teaching a class in Sociology at Santa Monica College (another story). Anyway, my office hours were in the campus cafeteria. One evening Jim walked through and said hello, holding a big bag full of submissions. Lee Montgomery, who had edited the magazine for a few years, had relocated, resigned, and the position of editor was unfilled.

Jim seemed frustrated, and indicated that he was sitting on hundreds of mss. On seeing me, and being a spontaneous fellow, Jim asked me to be the editor, no kidding. I assumed he was kidding, sort of. I went home, told Lisa, and sent a submission to the magazine, a story.

The next week, same scene. Jim walks through, with more mss. Sees me. Is happy, but explains that sending a submission was a fine thing, sure, and no doubt he would like my story but, Andrew (he said), there is no editor and I want you to be the editor.

I finally got it, conferred with Lisa, who knew that this was a dream job for me, and called Jim the next morning and, finally assured that he was not putting me on or kidding, became the editor.

This is more a good story about Jim, who put some real trust and responsibility in me. I also think he understood that I had experience as a community organizer, grant writer, activist, was a pretty committed reader and would surely do my best, or try my hardest — how to put this? — to make my hero, mentor proud. That was in 1998.

What would you say most distinguishes Santa Monica Review from the hundreds of other literary journals out there? Do you make it a point to focus on writers or themes related to Southern California?

I notice I use the word committed a lot. The magazine’s size is small but its reputation perhaps big. I am pleased when, a few weeks after an issue is out, I get queries from agents and editors asking to be put in contact with specific contributors. That is a very satisfying occurrence and, indeed, many of our contributors have gone on to public collections, novels and more. And we’ve been included in nearly all of the end-of-year prize story collections, too. Finally, I have a few shelves at home of stories and novels with some variation of the phrase “first appeared in Santa Monica Review…” That’s also gratifying.

We try to feature a majority of West Coast or what used to be called Pacific Rim writers, but not to exclude others. I have fudged the boundaries of the West considerably, frequently finding amazing writers from well beyond the Rockies or even the Mississippi River because, well, if you get a submission that is remarkable and fine, and the writer sees herself in your wheelhouse, excellent work, then any editor would jump on it.

How have your own literary tastes changed in your years of editing Santa Monica Review?

Jim advised me in only two specific ways. First, drop poetry. Mostly because he wanted us to establish a niche. Also, we did not have a poetry editor, or funds to pay one. Just salary, as it were, for the equivalent of teaching a class, for the editor. Me.

Second, to be as idiosyncratic as I wanted to be. This has been not all that hard. My own taste and interest tends toward word and voice-driven narrative, the fabulist or dream-world, political allegory or fable, poetic language, and ecological and scientifically-informed work. I admire wit and humor. I don’t mind long sentences, in fact adore them.

My own tastes are secondary to the direction of the magazine, but of course easy to spot. But I really am open to both experimental work and solid realistic writing. I’d like stories to start right away or, alternatively, to be captivated, engaged by the voice or premise. Not a lot of time to read through pages of set-up and situation and back-story.

Beyond reading and responding to submissions, what does the job of being a literary journal editor entail?

The job entails bragging about the magazine, as I have done, above. But also maintaining the database, answering queries and correspondence, representing the magazine publicly, promoting it at conferences and workshops and in classes. I respond to subscriptions and organize the mailing, answer requests for back issues. I write thank-notes to especially generous supporters and send free copies of the journal to incarcerated women and men. I visit creative writing workshops, have been hosted at numerous local colleges and university, as a sort of “visiting editor.” This year I organized four readings, including our usual at the Edye but also at Beyond Baroque and both LA and SF LitQuake.

I am on the staff at annual summer workshops at a writers conference, the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. I find participating there and visiting colleges and occasional writing conferences to be helpful in finding work, meeting writers. So in addition to the CoW, I of course I look at a lot of submissions from UC Irvine MFA grads, Krusoe students, Antioch and other workshops where my reader and friend Dawna Kemper and Jim and others have taught.

Many lit journals — especially those of the online variety — seem to pop up then disappear every year. What advice do you have for would-be lit journal editors on keeping things going for the long haul?

I can’t really give advice regarding the organizational or financial or administrative angle, as SMR is so lucky to be sponsored by Santa Monica College. Except for asking people to subscribe, offering ads for sale and occasionally inviting a big donor to donate, I haven’t had to do much fundraising. On the one hand, we will as a result likely never get too much bigger, or print more than twice yearly. On the other, the school has been sponsoring us for nearly 30 years!

We participate in the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, where for most of the life of that festival Santa Monica College has hosted a booth featuring us, and we distribute a couple of thousand free copies. That makes me happy too, being able to offer people a gift from the college, as part of its mission to promote literacy and the literary arts, and support writers. The only year I missed was when my wife went into labor the night before. Some really good pals, students of Jim’s, writer-contributors and fans of the magazine stepped in for me. So, more commitment.
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Enter to win a Santa Monica Review prize pack by signing up for my newsletter. Already joined up? Then you’re already entered. Good luck!

Earlier:
* Jim Krusoe’s workshop: Legendary (and affordable!) westside creative writing class
* 15 literary journals for Los Angeles writers

Photo by Brett Hall Jones

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October giveaway: Santa Monica Review prize package & party tickets

*** Winner selected! Congratulations to Candi in Newport Beach, Calif.! ***

Santa Monica Review celebrates its 30th anniversary next year — and as part of the celebration, one lucky reader will win a 4-issue prize package from the literary journal!

But first, a bit about Santa Monica Review: Founded by Jim Krusoe back in 1988, this well-established and respected national literary magazine published some of Aimee Bender’s earliest works. The all-fiction print zine is published twice a year out of Santa Monica College.

I’m excited to be giving away a Santa Monica Review prize package to one my readers! The winner will receive:

  • This year’s two issues (spring and fall) of Santa Monica Review
  • A one-year subscription to Santa Monica Review for 2018

All current email subscribers will be automatically entered to win the prize package. Subscribe now if you’re not yet getting my occasional newsletters.

And Los Angeles-area readers can enter to win a second prize: A pair of tickets to the Reading Celebration ($20 value) for the fall issue, featuring Brendan Park, Mark Gozonsky, Inna Effress, Suzanne Greenberg, among others. The party happens Sunday, Oct. 8, 2017 from 5 pm to 7 pm at The Edye, SMC Performing Arts Center in Santa Monica — and there will be refreshments, mingling, journals and books on sale, and a chance to meet the writers.

Want to go? Leave a comment on this post with the words “I want to celebrate.”  The giveaway for the tickets closes October 4, 2017 at 11:59 pm PST; the giveaway for the prize package closes October 5, 2017 at 11:59 pm PST. US addresses only.

Come back mid-month to read an interview with Santa Monica Review editor,  Andrew Tonkovich.

Earlier: 15 literary journals for Los Angeles writers

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Cake Time gets a review in ZYZZYVA — Plus see you at six October events

Siel Ju and Lisa Locascio, a few Halloweens ago

One of my first fiction publications was in the west coast lit journal ZYZZYVA a few years ago. That story’s included in my novel-in-stories Cake Time published a few months ago, and a few days ago, ZZYZZYVA reviewed Cake Time so I feel like the world’s come full circle:

For Siel Ju’s narrator, there are no easy answers or tidy morals to unpack after a relationship fizzles—that’s just life…. Cake Time is a great story collection for our present moment; an exploration of love, morality, and contentment that proves such concepts can be as murky and uncertain as a wisp of cigarette smoke outside a chic bar.

I love this review partly because I love ZZYZZYVA but mostly because I’ve always wanted to be mentioned in the same piece as Lorrie Moore and Mary Gaitskill and now I have! Read the full review on ZYZZYVA.

Then come hang with me in person this Halloween month. I’ll be in costume in some or all of the events and would love to see you there —

First up, a reading for literary journal The Los Angeles Review, with John Brantingham, Brittany Ackerman, Emma Trelles, and L.A. Times book reporter Agatha French. I am told there will be free booze at this one —

The Los Angeles Review Reading
(Facebook event page)
Friday, October 6, 2017, 7:30 pm
The Last Bookstore, 453 S Spring St, Los Angeles.

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Then celebrate National Reading Group Month with the L.A. chapter of Women’s National Book Association who’ll be hosting an author panel with me, plus Abbi Waxman (The Garden of Small Beginnings) and Gabrielle Zevin (Young Jane Young) — both of whom I’m excited to meet —

National Reading Group Month Authors Panel
(Facebook event page)
Wednesday, October 11, 2017, 7:30 pm
Skylight Books, 1818 N. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles

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Mid-month, news site The LA Lit Review will host Indie Author Day with a host of local readers giving short readings. I’ll be one of them — plus there’ll be refreshments, a short film screening, a comedy skit, and an acoustic musical performance.

Indie Author Day
Saturday, October 14, 2017, 3 pm – 5 pm
Junipero Serra branch library, 4607 S Main St, Los Angeles

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Then I’ll be playing host myself, leading a discussion of The Handmaid’s Tale at Pen Center USA’s Edison Book Club. I first read the book back in college; I’m now in the middle of the Hulu series as part of my preparations for this evening. Come for the specialty cocktails!

Pen Center USA’s Edison Book Club
(I will host this month’s event; more about the book club here)
Wednesday, October 18, 2017, 6 pm – 8pm
The Edison, 108 W 2nd St, #101, Los Angeles

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Near the end of the month, Lit Crawl LA will return to North Hollywood. I’ll be at a Red Hen reading event there — but the schedule still isn’t up so I don’t know when and where it’ll be! For now, just block out the night for the crawl —

Lit Crawl L.A.
Wednesday, October 25, 2017, time TBD
NoHo Arts District, North Hollywood

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And lastly, if you’ve ever wanted to attend a posh literary salon in a private home in North Hollywood, here’s your chance. I’ll be reading with Maggie Smith — Get in touch with me for a private invite.

Los Angeles Review Salon
(Private event — Email me for an invite)
Sunday, October 29, 2017, 2 pm

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It’ll be a busy month and I hope you’ll make time to see me! Come in costume or as yourself and if I don’t see you before then, happy Halloween —

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September book reviews: Zhang, Rhys, Khong, Walls, Gray, Maum plus two guys with two-syllable names

Brief reviews of books by contemporary authors I read this month — along with photos of what I ate while reading. The list is ordered by the level of my enjoyment:

Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang (Lenny, 2017)

“All I had wanted for so long was to be part of a family that wasn’t mine.”
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You guys, this book is so good. Sour Heart tells interconnected stories of girlhood as Chinese immigrants in NYC — the raw, unvarnished, gritty stories completely unlike, say, The Joy Luck Club. Four families packed into one room with rats and roaches, volatile mothers who threaten abandonment and suicide, alcoholism, adultery, claustrophobic closeness and latchkey kid loneliness — plus a lot of love and beauty and desire and survival. Pick this one up.

Good Morning, Midnight by Jean Rhys (Constable, 1939)

“One day, quite suddenly, when you’re not expecting it, I’ll take a hammer from the folds of my dark cloak and crack your skull like an egg-shell.”
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How have I not read any Jean Rhys until now?! Her dark, dissolute style is my new obsession. Loved this story of a woman who returns to Paris to battle the disappointments of the past and paranoia of the present. The ending is chilling —

The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls (Scribner, 2005)

“I lived in a world that at any moment could erupt into fire. It was the sort of knowledge that kept you on your toes.”
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I loved this poignant memoir — Jeannette’s parents are so irresponsible, fucked up, and abusive, yet also loving, steadfast, and wise in their own strange ways. The memoir’s also real eye opener that makes you rethink your beliefs about all sorts of social issues: poverty, work, self-improvement — even literacy and reading. I’m now curious about the movie —

Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong (Henry Holt, 2017)

“What I want to know is what counted for something and what counted not at all.”
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I thought Goodbye, Vitamin would be a rather depressing read — after all it’s about a 30 year-old woman fresh from a bad breakup who moves back in with her parents to help out with her father who has Alzheimer’s — but the novel is actually full of love and forgiveness and humor. It reminded me to enjoy the small serendipities in life — both the ones that bond you to people for life and the ones that momentarily connect you to strangers in the grocery store.

Isadora by Amelia Gray (FSG, 2017)

“The silver tray of his heart holds two brown tincture bottles, each offering their own opiate. The first is marked Desire and the other Virtue; one clouds the mind and the other turns the stomach, but they have the same general effect in the end.”

Aren’t those lines a beautiful way of describing competing wants? I got to interview Amelia about her novel based on the dancer Isadora Duncan’s life. Here’s my full review of Isadora, along with a giveaway —

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (Random House, 2017)

“Doubt will fester as long as we live.”
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I picked up Lincoln in the Bardo knowing nothing about it, just because I’m a fan of George Saunders’s short stories — so the novel surprised me and brought up a lot of questions too, namely: Why a slightly goofy, sort of historical yet largely paranormal story about the death of Lincoln’s young son? I mean, George’s stories are so varied — He really could have written anything. I wonder what made him choose this setting, topic, and style over others. Did it somehow choose him, or was this a deliberate decision on his part? Apparently he talks about this a bit on podcast interviews; I’ll need to listen to some of those —

Touch by Courtney Maum (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2017)

“All these humans with their disappointments and their desperate hearts, but it’s so much easier, so convenient, to blame emotional distance on a lack of time.”
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I think my expectations for Touch might have been a touch too high. I liked it on a conceptual level — this idea of a screen-addicted, increasingly isolated society longing to return to simple human, physical connection — but I found the message a bit heavy handed, and thought the whole instant love thing between the protagonist and the hot younger guy too pat and easy. Isn’t real life — real touch — messier? In a good way?

Happy Gut by Vincent Pedre (William Morrow, 2015)

Among the foods I can’t really eat right now: dairy, eggs, gluten, almonds, and alcohol. That’s what I discovered after doing the Happy Gut program — an elimination diet plus gut health protocol I have mixed feelings about. Full review with all the details of my personal food issues here —
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Get more and more timely book reviews from me on Instagram. And if you have books to recommend, send me a note!