18 of 30- McSweeney's 37

Another great issue of McSweeney's. I started this and another book at the same time thinking I might need a break from short stories after finishing McSweeney's 36 but I couldn't put this one down. I'll have to say content wise I loved it, art design wise where the 2 dimensional pages are drawn to look 3 dimensional with cool interior art was great. The binding sucked, both Heather's and my copy the binding ripped off completely. It made it hard to read and was distracting as I like to take care of my books. The issue was that there wasn't enough give to the spine and when the pages were open in the middle of the book it leveraged the spine off of the book. The inside art that was made to look like the spine of the book were amazing. I looked up who did it and one of the artists was included in McSweeney's 36 Sophia Cara Frydman. I'm insanely jealous of her skill as an illustrator and would love to own one of her pieces one day.

The book was structured with a letters section, a general selection of short stories & essays then 4 stories from modern Kenya with a brief discussion about Kenyan literature. One of the first things that stands out is that this was another issue relatively free of political agenda unlike some of Egger's war themed issues that got a little tiresome. I was obviously expecting all of the Kenyan stories to be about oppression and human rights violations but they were all completely different and enjoyable.

The book started out with a story by Jonathan Franzen, Ambition that was about a couple who start off great together because of their lack of ambition but as the story moves forward it turns into something more for him. Great story and a great begging. Some others that stood out were a story by Nelly Reifler, Grove that was amazing, told from the perspective of a clairvoyant bunny. Etgar Keret's story was great and he reminds me of a funnier Nathan Englander. Joyce Carol Oats wrote a story about a bird trapped in the waiting area of a airport that was thought provoking and smart. J. Malcolm Garcia writes an article about a crime in Ireland through to be perpetrated by the IRA that was brutal and enlightening. For some reason I find Irish accents funnier in print. Joe Meno writes a fantastic story about a man who's life crosses path with an interesting foreign woman who's obsessed with being eaten by a lion. Jess Walter's piece about living in Spokane Washington was funny & flowed surprisingly well for being written in list form. One of my favorite stories about a man lost after divorce is here written by Kevin Moffett. The alcoholic father has his teenage daughter for the weekend, is self destructive and struggling to make his life work. Loved the way the story ended.

I'm all out of McSweeney's to read unless I crack into Heathers collection but the farther I get along in this pinkie swear I realize I want to stick to my own books first and I still have a long way to go before I get through half of what I own.