Tag: Fiction

Story Reviews

It’s a Pattern. Commentary on Barbara Diggs’s “You Are What You Eat”

Pauline Shen

We each thrive dependent on how well we nourish ourselves. But what we choose to nourish ourselves with is a story in and of itself. In Barbara Diggs’s “You Are What You Eat,” the reader witnesses the effect of one narrator’s attempts at mitigating rage by replacing it with love. But which ingredients are required? Diggs pulls the reader in with sensual yet surprising language. “Sunny side up, salmonella-scrambled, salsa-slathered, over-hard yellow-white discs fried in bacon grease until the edges curl like wispy brown lace.”

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Story Reviews

Point of no return. Commentary on Brigid Swanick’s “Little White Lies”

Pauline Shen

What happens when you lean-in to heartache? When you take the bitterness and wrap it around yourself like a cloak? When you harness sadness as a means to grab attention from others rather than explore within for true fulfilment? Brigid Swanick’s “Little White Lies” examines the process and outcome of a character who chooses just that. “Their questions and concerns, their desire to help me,” says our narrator-protagonist, “their intense focus entirely on me made me obsessed, made me visible in a world that was otherwise indifferent.”

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Story Reviews

Gone. Commentary on J. Paul Ross’s “A Hundred and Twenty-Seven”

Pauline Shen

As J. Paul Ross’s story “A Hundred and Twenty-Seven” unfolds, our narrator paints a picture. At first, this is a very narrow perspective. As the story goes on, however, this picture becomes clearer and fuller. It begins with our protagonist, Derrick Crosby, who, “was following 127 people online, and all of them were women.” The narrative then proceeds in a casual and languid manner that mimics the action of scrolling through a social media newsfeed.

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