April 8th, 2009 / 2:27 pm
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The New Paris Review
- This is not Philip Gourevitch.
I bought the new Paris Revivew today. In it is a piece of fiction from the Paris Review’s editor, Philip Gourevitch. He is known primarily as a non-fiction writer, and a brilliant one at that. His book about the Rwandan genocide, We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families, is truly great and I read it alongside Hannah Arendt, a great biography of Pol Pot called Brother Number One as well as some other hardcore stuff on genocide and it completely held up to the company. But fiction? This is new to me. Also, it isn’t unheard of, but I do think it is rare, for The Paris Review to publish thier editors’ fiction, so I think this is a real treat. Here’s the first graph of the story called “Enough”:
This was what he did when he felt like a failure: he withdrew. Erika said he withdrew into himself. He said, No–his self was no refuge. He understood what she meant, of course, the figure of speech. But when he felt like a failure he could not accept that anyone might understand him. That would contradict his despair. He didn’t want to see anyone and he didn’t want to be seen and so he made himself unsightly: he drank a great deal and slept very little and gave up grooming and laundry. He did not want to talk to anyone. He spoke only when he felt he had to, and the speech came in brief bitter outbursts that surprised him and gave him no relief.
Tags: philip gourevitch, the paris review
pr has some of the best posts!
hey is that a passionate ken baumann in the pic?
pr has some of the best posts!
hey is that a passionate ken baumann in the pic?
jesse ball has a thing in the new issue also. i want to touch the issue just for that
jesse ball has a thing in the new issue also. i want to touch the issue just for that
you are nice. I appreciate it. That is a tennis player. This is not the first time I’ve posted a picture of him. I’m hopeless.
Here’s Jesse’s first graph for you Blake-
“It was a hard decision. God knows how long it took them to come to it. There were four of them, in a filthy, empty room, starving to death, and they hatched upon a plan.
that is good. i think the section is from another novel. he is a magic man.
that is good. i think the section is from another novel. he is a magic man.
pr, haven’t you learned by now I am not nice?
when I say something it is out of honesty not niceness.
that post about the russians beating the shit out of each other pops into my head all the time.
pr, haven’t you learned by now I am not nice?
when I say something it is out of honesty not niceness.
that post about the russians beating the shit out of each other pops into my head all the time.
both those first paragraphs are wonderful.
“He spoke only when he felt he had to, and the speech came in brief bitter outbursts tha surprised him and gave him no relief.”
Perfection.
both those first paragraphs are wonderful.
“He spoke only when he felt he had to, and the speech came in brief bitter outbursts tha surprised him and gave him no relief.”
Perfection.
I just realized “that” is missing a “t” but otherwise perfection.
I just realized “that” is missing a “t” but otherwise perfection.
thanks -will fix it.
The Annie Proulx interview is interesting as well. Now if they could only wrangle Cormac McCarthy!
The Annie Proulx interview is interesting as well. Now if they could only wrangle Cormac McCarthy!
Yeah, I love her- looking forward to reading that one. Cormac…he’d probably just be all elusive and stuff. When he does talk, he says so little I find. Anyway, but yeah. Good stuff.
Gotta build mystique, I guess. At least he’s always been that way and didn’t adopt that once he became big-time. One thing I wonder about Proulx though is that she claims in the interview to hardly read fiction. Consumes non-fiction…etc. But reads omnivorously and says that the best way to learn to write is to read. I’m just not sure I believe her when she says she doesn’t read much fiction since that’s her primary medium.
Gotta build mystique, I guess. At least he’s always been that way and didn’t adopt that once he became big-time. One thing I wonder about Proulx though is that she claims in the interview to hardly read fiction. Consumes non-fiction…etc. But reads omnivorously and says that the best way to learn to write is to read. I’m just not sure I believe her when she says she doesn’t read much fiction since that’s her primary medium.
I believe it. I saw her speak once- I loved it- but it was in regard to her argument with Richard Ford on whether fiction writers can make up improbable stuff in realistic fiction and she was very very against it. (He wrote some story where there is a black family in some part of – oklahoma?- that Proulx claimed never had any blacks, and he was like so? it’s fiction. and hse didn’t like that.) So, her emphasis on authentic details seems to jibe with her non-fiction reading. She’s great. She strikes me as a bit “on the spectrum”. After I heard her speak I went to this drinks thing and I was too shy to say anything to her. I kick myself for that.
I know a fiction writer who read very little as in, not a big reader at all. That I find wierd.
haha that totally is ken
haha that totally is ken
I guess what sucks about Gourevitch publishing himself is that he’s taking a slot that ought by rights to belong to, say, a Louisiana Tech football player who also happens to read and write fiction like a mofo. I mean, c’mon, if Philip Gourevitch wrote a story good enough to get into the Paris Review, then it was also probably a story good enough to get into Harper’s or The New Yorker, and they sure as shit would love to publish any Philip Gourevitch stuff they can, because he’s a badass and we all want to read him and like to read him, and he’s got relationships with all of them. So why self-publish his story, against all conventions against the same, in the Paris Review? Nonfiction? Sure, why not? But not fiction. Plimpton wouldn’t have done this, Remnick doesn’t do it, Lapham didn’t do it, it’s not done. The only major lit journal guy who publishes his own fiction in his journal is David Lynn at the Kenyon Review, and people are always talking about how super uncool that is, even here in Louisiana, even at summer two-a-days and three-a-days.
I guess what sucks about Gourevitch publishing himself is that he’s taking a slot that ought by rights to belong to, say, a Louisiana Tech football player who also happens to read and write fiction like a mofo. I mean, c’mon, if Philip Gourevitch wrote a story good enough to get into the Paris Review, then it was also probably a story good enough to get into Harper’s or The New Yorker, and they sure as shit would love to publish any Philip Gourevitch stuff they can, because he’s a badass and we all want to read him and like to read him, and he’s got relationships with all of them. So why self-publish his story, against all conventions against the same, in the Paris Review? Nonfiction? Sure, why not? But not fiction. Plimpton wouldn’t have done this, Remnick doesn’t do it, Lapham didn’t do it, it’s not done. The only major lit journal guy who publishes his own fiction in his journal is David Lynn at the Kenyon Review, and people are always talking about how super uncool that is, even here in Louisiana, even at summer two-a-days and three-a-days.
P.S. – Would anyone be willing to scan that Proulx interview and put the PDF somewhere we can find it?
P.S. – Would anyone be willing to scan that Proulx interview and put the PDF somewhere we can find it?
ai, d’anthony, get at me.
out here in North Texas, my fam-bam comes out of louie a little bit.
and you seem like the type of cat I’d want to read fiction from.
ai, d’anthony, get at me.
out here in North Texas, my fam-bam comes out of louie a little bit.
and you seem like the type of cat I’d want to read fiction from.
Have you read it?
Yeah, it;s strange – a strange thing to do.
Have you read it?
Yeah, it;s strange – a strange thing to do.
Your fake annie proulx book comment was a favorite of mine. Perfectly done.
Your fake annie proulx book comment was a favorite of mine. Perfectly done.
hey – i sent you an email…if you still have that account, man of action?
hey – i sent you an email…if you still have that account, man of action?
hey ken, if you really look like that, wanna play tennis with me?
hey ken, if you really look like that, wanna play tennis with me?
I actually play tennis. Used to play competitively. I’d play with you in a heartbeat.
I actually play tennis. Used to play competitively. I’d play with you in a heartbeat.