Granta - Best Young American Novelists: Kevin Brockmeier

[NotQuiteCockney]

This came in the post recently, and I've just started it. I really enjoyed the Parakeets story, by Kevin Brockmeier.

Anyone else reading this Granta? Anyone a fan of Kevin Brockmeier? What's his other work like?

i read his "brief history of the Dead" (or somehting similar) and thought it was really good.

Cool - what's it like? Is it like a myth, almost south american magic realismy?

And what sort of writing do you like generally?

I really liked the story in the Granta (all the stories so far are good, oh, except for that Jonathan Safer Foer bloke or however you spell it, ugh), but his was by far the best, so far.

no, well, yes, well, it's not really magical realism but the concept is quite unusual. I think it's mentioned early on in the book, but won't say in case not (read it a while ago).

Generally I like anything with a strong narrative thread and well written. Recently I have really liked Brooklyn Follies by Paul Auster. I also quite liked Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney, didn't think it was as great as made out, but worth a read on the tube.

Any good recommendations?

Hello NQC. I suspect you and I live in parallel universes parellelly simultaneously reading the same things.

Here is what I thought:

• I quite liked Alarcon.
• Brockmeier? nah sorry. Bit wet?
• Safran Foer: agree. Could Do Better. Has in Past. is maybe Resting on Laurels. Or: has done the easy stuff, now it's time to be Ambitious (= That Difficult Second Album). or something.
• Dara Horn: really jolly good. Impressively convincing, plus historical research. Would read more.
• Yiyun Li: pretty good - kept ringing bells re Amy Tan and McCall Smith (funny combo, but you can see why). Would read more of that too.

And: what is it about infertility? The last collection was all about Mortality and Poverty. This one is very very fixated on the next generation, or rather the difficulties in there being one. Maybe it's to do with the selection, though, rather than a zeitgeist. What do you think?

I'm only here briefly - I will try to reply to this thread properly on Monday or Tuesday. (I'm in Dublin. Just online to make a grocery order.)

I haven't read all of the Granta book yet, but will start again when home.

Hello ladies,

I hope you don't mind me gatecrashing your conversation. I've just started reading it too - only the first three or four so far. I still have the last Granta (Loved Ones) to finish - found some of that one quite hard going.

Talking of American literature, I also have a copy of The Corrections lying by my bed (I think Franzen was in the first Granta best of young Americans - hence the train of thought). I started it a few weeks ago but didn't get very far. Have any of you read it, and is it good?

i've been a bit lazy (ie not at work so no tube time = no time to read) so i've only read akhil sharma so far. ok, i thought. not breathtaking. no idea why i started with that one. will now read the kevin brockmeier...

theprecious if you like a strong story - rose tremain tells a good yarn and is an excellent writer i think. i do prefer her novels to her short stories though. Helen Dunmore also good but i was a tad disappointed in the 'house of orphans' felt i'd been there before.

but if there is a magical realism thing going on nothing beats (for me) love in the time of cholera. loved it.

or the wind up bird chronicle (murakami) really enjoyed that - but maybe tips into the sureal a bit? if you like pynchon (i do) i think you'll like murakami.

or have you read 'little boy lost'? i keep recommending that - even my dh liked it. it's a persephone book (author marghanita laski) so you need to go on website or be able to shop in london.

i could go on and on and on.... but i won't . hope book club regulars mind me crashing in but don't know many other people who read granta so couldn't resist!

I loved The Corrections. Absolutely adored it.

Thanks NQC - I liked the bit I read, but didn't get far enough to really get into it. I will pick it up again after the weekend (the person who recommended it is coming to stay next weekend so it would be good if I was some way itno reading it by then ).

I've been a Granta subscriber for years but funnily enough never met any others.

I've been reading it for years, too. I really like it. It's the only British magazine I really have time for. Well, Monocle is good, and Slightly Foxed ...

I have been a Granta subscriber since about issue 20 - but I have not opened this one yet. I remember the first Best Young Americans (and the first Best British...)

I liked the last Slightly Foxed particularly as I had read two of the books that were discussed.

I like Rose Tremian and Helen Dumore! I will try the others you mentioned, ECATLM.

Surely 100 Years beats Love in the Time of Cholera??

NQC keep going with the Corrections, I found the first chapter really hard going but then it seemed to take off.

Anyone else like Donna Tartt's The Little Friend? I did but found the end a bit contrived (holding breath bit).