McSweeney’s 24
Edited by Dave Eggers Hamish Hamilton, 320pp, £18.99
This latest instalment of the eccentric literary journal is not for the faint-hearted. One loaded firearm per story is the norm in an unusually testosterone-filled issue. The shadow of current events may provide an explanation: one contribution follows a Blackwater mercenary ambushed by Iraqi insurgents, while an extract from Millard Kaufman’s novel Bowl of Cherries is set against the backdrop of the Iraq War.
But a stronger theme linking the pieces is the study of the variously frustrated men who are drawn to intrigue and violence. Aaron Gwyn’s “Look At Me”, which concerns a have-a-go hero fantasising about his chance to shine, is the most forceful in its vivid description of fear and bloodletting. Other efforts range from the engaging (Jonathan Ames’s amateur detective) to the glib (Joe Meno’s account of the 1973 bank siege where “Stockholm syndrome” was first observed).
Elsewhere, the back half (separated by a clever binding, as one has come to expect from McSweeney’s) is a celebration of the innovator of the ultra-short “flash fiction” form Donald Barthelme. Writers contribute their memories, followed by two previously unpublished Barthelme stories that display his powerfully economic, if claustrophobic, style.
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