By BEN SZMANDA
If you are going to write a piece of very short fiction, you have to make sure that you imply far more than what goes down on paper; the shorter the story, the more demands are placed on every word. Why am I regurgitating truisms at you? Because I came across someone […]

By BEN SZMANDA
At the beginning of the 20th century, China had essentially become spoils for the various European empires to divvy up amongst themselves. The Manchu dynasty was incredibly weak: Its remaining strength had been turned on any reform minded citizen brave enough to attempt to modify Confucian traditions. Resentment brewed. Even […]

By BEN SZMANDA
I should be irritated that Pafko at the Wall even exists as a book. This is nothing but the prologue to Don DeLillo’s epic novel Underworld, prepackaged and sold as a stand alone work. Little has been updated or changed; the real novelty seems to be an admittedly great picture on […]

By BEN SZMANDA
But don Miguel, the optimism, the innocence, the aura of possibility you experienced have been largely drained away, and the universe is closing in on us again. Like you, we, to seem to be standing at the end of one age, and on the threshold of another. We, too, have been […]

By BEN SZMANDA
Jenny Erpenbeck’s disturbing, beautifully constructed novella The Book of Words seems to take place in Argentina during the ”Dirty War” of the 1970s. Much like the name of the narrator herself, however, the name of the country is never mentioned. Maybe that’s the point. The narrator, a young girl, complains to […]

By BEN SZMANDA
This may bum you out: There are people out there that think Vlad Tepes was not in fact the direct source for Dracula. I know, I hate it when some snotty researcher comes along and destroys cherished childhood knowledge too. That whole Pluto thing still gets me angry. But on […]