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McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern #36
McSweeney's Issue 36
Inside this 275-cubic-inch full-color head-crate, there are all the things you'd hope for:
- a 100-page annotated fragment of Michael Chabon's lost novel,
- incredible new stories from John Brandon and Colm Tóibín,
- Jack Pendarvis's "Jungle Geronimo in Gay Paree,"
- a play by Wajahat Ali,
Eight astounding booklets in all, along with some other things on top, enough for hundreds and hundreds of pages of perusal, every bit of it, like we said, contained in a more-or-less-life-size friendly-looking head. It will fit on your shelf, it is compatible with most hats, and the stuff inside is wonderful—order yours today!
- a 100-page annotated fragment of Michael Chabon's lost novel,
- incredible new stories from John Brandon and Colm Tóibín,
- Jack Pendarvis's "Jungle Geronimo in Gay Paree,"
- a play by Wajahat Ali,
Eight astounding booklets in all, along with some other things on top, enough for hundreds and hundreds of pages of perusal, every bit of it, like we said, contained in a more-or-less-life-size friendly-looking head. It will fit on your shelf, it is compatible with most hats, and the stuff inside is wonderful—order yours today!
636 pages, Box
First published January 1, 2010
About the author
Dave Eggers
350 books9,761 followersDave Eggers is an American writer, editor, and publisher. He is best known for his 2000 memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, which became a bestseller and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. Eggers is also the founder of several notable literary and philanthropic ventures, including the literary journal Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, the literacy project 826 Valencia, and the human rights nonprofit Voice of Witness. Additionally, he founded ScholarMatch, a program that connects donors with students needing funds for college tuition. His writing has appeared in numerous prestigious publications, including The New Yorker, Esquire, and The New York Times Magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 17, 2011
Wow where to start? I've been looking forward to this issue since I found out that McSweeney's 36 was going to be a human head! Well it is - kind of. It's a box with a wraparound picture of a middle aged balding dude who's sweating. But pop open his head and - voila! A collection of books, booklets, postcards, and a scroll of fortunes without the cookies! The issue knocks you out it's so well produced.
As I explored through the head though and marvelled at the high production values that must have gone into such a project, I hoped to myself that the contents of these books could live up to the high standard of the presentation. But alas, as I read my way through the head it's my sad conclusion that this is a very weak issue for writing.
First off - "Early Morning at the Station". This is a very small paper booklet featuring an extract from Andrew Kennedy Hutchinson Boyd's 1861 book "The Recreations of a Country Parson" and is as boring as you would think. Basically the man stares at the countryside and describes it. Thankfully it's very short.
Sophia Cara Frydman's booklet, also very short, is called "Don't Get Distracted" and is a comic book about her walk to art school one morning. She meets a vagrant, he imparts some "profound" advice - the title - and walks off. Argh! When was I going to find something good to read?!
Then there are four postcards of a submarine catfish - a nice idea as it revives an old way of sending postcards in pieces so once you'd received four postcards from that person it'd make up a picture when you placed them together.
Adam Levin contributes a booklet which is an extract from his forthcoming novel "The Instructions". It's about teenage kids beating each other up and talking rubbish. It's as bad to read as it sounds. Absolute drek.
Right, I was going to pick something that looked good on the cover - Jack Pendarvis' "Jungle Geronimo" it was! This is a fake 1960s abridgement of a fake 1910 Tarzan like novel. It's supposed to be funny because these abridgements were bad. But then so were the original "adventure" novels. So what about this was a good idea? It's so utterly crap as to be unreadable. Honestly I made it to Chapter 2 and gave up, it's so dull and unengaging.
In the brown envelope was a covering letter (nice touches both) with a fake screenplay "written for the comedy partnership of Dana Carvey and Mike Myers". It's about a washed up baseball player making good. Really corny - even by Austin Powers standards - gags abound in yet another painfully unfunny book from this issue. When was this issue going to show some promise?
Well, thankfully something turned out well. The book titled "McSweeney's 36" had an excellent story from the persistently brilliant writer Ismet Prcic (read his story in "McSweeney's 26" for further proof of his ability) about an Eastern European soldier from the countryside sitting in the audience of an avant-garde American play about their views on foreigners. The soldier becomes enraged and storms the stage only to find he is part of the play - or is he? Madness and reality merge masterfully in this short but brilliant story. Colm Toibin's novella "The Street" is the highlight of this issue for me. The story of two Muslim barbers in Barcelona who fall in love and pursue a clandestine gay romance was very touching, well written, captivating and ultimately very moving. A less dramatic "Brokeback Mountain", I'll definitely read some of Toibin's other work.
Also a highlight was a booklet from McSweeney's "Voice of Witness" series titled "Masu Mon", an oral account by Masu Mon, a young girl fighting against the military junta in Burma by trying to bring freedom of the press into her country and promoting democracy. Far too short for what was a compelling account, and far better than most of the other books featured here, but I will buy the book when it's released later this year.
Two more to go! Oh but before that, there is a roll of fortunes included. Some funny, some clever, it's a nifty touch only to be found with the McSweeney's bunch. All is forgiven! I thought after 2 good books and a roll of fortunes. But then I got to Wajahat Ali's dreadful "The Domestic Crusaders" - a two act play about a day in the life of a Pakistani-American famiily. It reads like a bad cliched 80s American sitcom. The kids are overly sarcastic and the adults are idiots. Absolute rubbish, I threw it back in the head disgusted.
And so the finale - Michael Chabon's lost novel "Fountain City". This was an abandoned novel by Chabon from 1992 when he wrote 4 chapters then left it to write what would become "Wonder Boys" instead. I'd say it was the right choice. The novel is alright but having never finished a Chabon novel before, this "wrecked novel" didn't dissuade me from my opinion that Chabon is just not a good writer. His commentary throughout though with footnotes was more entertaining than the novel. Also the book features a fold out picture of the "Fountain City" which was another nice touch.
And that's what this issue was - a series of nice touches, stylistically. I'd say for book lovers it's worth buying just for the tactile experience. However if you're a fiction fan like me, you'll be disappointed by the poor fare within these excellently produced books.
I give this eagerly awaited but ultimately disappointing issue 2 stars for the production and 1 star for the Colm Toibin and Ismet Prcic. Too little content but plenty of style.
As I explored through the head though and marvelled at the high production values that must have gone into such a project, I hoped to myself that the contents of these books could live up to the high standard of the presentation. But alas, as I read my way through the head it's my sad conclusion that this is a very weak issue for writing.
First off - "Early Morning at the Station". This is a very small paper booklet featuring an extract from Andrew Kennedy Hutchinson Boyd's 1861 book "The Recreations of a Country Parson" and is as boring as you would think. Basically the man stares at the countryside and describes it. Thankfully it's very short.
Sophia Cara Frydman's booklet, also very short, is called "Don't Get Distracted" and is a comic book about her walk to art school one morning. She meets a vagrant, he imparts some "profound" advice - the title - and walks off. Argh! When was I going to find something good to read?!
Then there are four postcards of a submarine catfish - a nice idea as it revives an old way of sending postcards in pieces so once you'd received four postcards from that person it'd make up a picture when you placed them together.
Adam Levin contributes a booklet which is an extract from his forthcoming novel "The Instructions". It's about teenage kids beating each other up and talking rubbish. It's as bad to read as it sounds. Absolute drek.
Right, I was going to pick something that looked good on the cover - Jack Pendarvis' "Jungle Geronimo" it was! This is a fake 1960s abridgement of a fake 1910 Tarzan like novel. It's supposed to be funny because these abridgements were bad. But then so were the original "adventure" novels. So what about this was a good idea? It's so utterly crap as to be unreadable. Honestly I made it to Chapter 2 and gave up, it's so dull and unengaging.
In the brown envelope was a covering letter (nice touches both) with a fake screenplay "written for the comedy partnership of Dana Carvey and Mike Myers". It's about a washed up baseball player making good. Really corny - even by Austin Powers standards - gags abound in yet another painfully unfunny book from this issue. When was this issue going to show some promise?
Well, thankfully something turned out well. The book titled "McSweeney's 36" had an excellent story from the persistently brilliant writer Ismet Prcic (read his story in "McSweeney's 26" for further proof of his ability) about an Eastern European soldier from the countryside sitting in the audience of an avant-garde American play about their views on foreigners. The soldier becomes enraged and storms the stage only to find he is part of the play - or is he? Madness and reality merge masterfully in this short but brilliant story. Colm Toibin's novella "The Street" is the highlight of this issue for me. The story of two Muslim barbers in Barcelona who fall in love and pursue a clandestine gay romance was very touching, well written, captivating and ultimately very moving. A less dramatic "Brokeback Mountain", I'll definitely read some of Toibin's other work.
Also a highlight was a booklet from McSweeney's "Voice of Witness" series titled "Masu Mon", an oral account by Masu Mon, a young girl fighting against the military junta in Burma by trying to bring freedom of the press into her country and promoting democracy. Far too short for what was a compelling account, and far better than most of the other books featured here, but I will buy the book when it's released later this year.
Two more to go! Oh but before that, there is a roll of fortunes included. Some funny, some clever, it's a nifty touch only to be found with the McSweeney's bunch. All is forgiven! I thought after 2 good books and a roll of fortunes. But then I got to Wajahat Ali's dreadful "The Domestic Crusaders" - a two act play about a day in the life of a Pakistani-American famiily. It reads like a bad cliched 80s American sitcom. The kids are overly sarcastic and the adults are idiots. Absolute rubbish, I threw it back in the head disgusted.
And so the finale - Michael Chabon's lost novel "Fountain City". This was an abandoned novel by Chabon from 1992 when he wrote 4 chapters then left it to write what would become "Wonder Boys" instead. I'd say it was the right choice. The novel is alright but having never finished a Chabon novel before, this "wrecked novel" didn't dissuade me from my opinion that Chabon is just not a good writer. His commentary throughout though with footnotes was more entertaining than the novel. Also the book features a fold out picture of the "Fountain City" which was another nice touch.
And that's what this issue was - a series of nice touches, stylistically. I'd say for book lovers it's worth buying just for the tactile experience. However if you're a fiction fan like me, you'll be disappointed by the poor fare within these excellently produced books.
I give this eagerly awaited but ultimately disappointing issue 2 stars for the production and 1 star for the Colm Toibin and Ismet Prcic. Too little content but plenty of style.
February 17, 2011
Who doesn't wanna sift through a cubic severed head filled with all the major prose forms: nonfiction, novel, novella, comic, story collection, short-short, play, and screenplay, plus a scroll of fortune cookie fortunes ("you will say 'moider' instead of 'murder' on your death bed to lghiten the mood" AND "you pregnant.")? Half of what's here is stellar: Tim Heidecker (of Tim and Eric) co-writes an inspired piece- of-shit-script purportedly meant to star Mike Meyers, Dana Carvey, LL Cool J, and Carrot Top. The great excavator of literary obscurities Paul Collins unearths a lucid, lovely novel excerpt. Plus, Colm Toibin's story, the eerie comic, and the oral account of a Burmese rebel broke my heart. But the prize here goes to - get this - "Jungle Geronimo in Gay Paree" by LP Eaves (spoiler: it's actually by Jack Pendarvis, who you've never heard of, which is unfortunate cuz he funny)..
Skip much of the rest and you're good. I was psyched for the 2-act "The Domestic Crusaders", until I found out that half of it trades in character for overly familiar political mouthpiecery. An excerpt from Adam Levin's "The Instructions" puts you even further off of reading the rest of the thousand pages, plus someone convinced Michael Chabon that readers would enjoy 4 chapters of a novel so bad he himself abandoned it... and to release it here with arduous footnotes. "The Chabe" is an awesome writer and all, but I'm not looking to root through his annotated leavings.
I'm nitpicking. It's a head filled with stuff! You pick up one thing, give it a shot, put it back, grab something else, and McSweeney's is one of the few lit rags with a bona fide fetish for the book as artifact.
Skip much of the rest and you're good. I was psyched for the 2-act "The Domestic Crusaders", until I found out that half of it trades in character for overly familiar political mouthpiecery. An excerpt from Adam Levin's "The Instructions" puts you even further off of reading the rest of the thousand pages, plus someone convinced Michael Chabon that readers would enjoy 4 chapters of a novel so bad he himself abandoned it... and to release it here with arduous footnotes. "The Chabe" is an awesome writer and all, but I'm not looking to root through his annotated leavings.
I'm nitpicking. It's a head filled with stuff! You pick up one thing, give it a shot, put it back, grab something else, and McSweeney's is one of the few lit rags with a bona fide fetish for the book as artifact.
January 27, 2011
I usually kinda like the "collection of random stuff" issues of McSwy's, and this one came in a creepy looking cardboard box-cum-head that looks super unsettling on top of my bookcase, so there's one star at least. The Michael Chabon booklet is pretty much the big draw here if you're a Michael Chabon guy, which I mostly am. He digs around in an abandoned novel of his and adds some footnotes (we know how I love footnotes) and so forth, which now that I type it out sounds really boring, but you'll have to trust me. I do, however, sometimes get irked when ol' T.McSwy throws a bunch of ostensible advertisements into a quarterly that isn't particularly cheap. I don't need an excerpt of The Instructions because my wife gave me the book for Christmas. I don't need you to tell me about Voice of Witness because I already know about it. I think I liked some of the other short stories, but I'll be honest here and tell you I read that part while at the in-laws for x-mas and there's therefore a high likelihood that Celtic Thunder was turned to 11 in a 15x15 living room while I was trying to read and so I don't really remember...wait, there was a kid who got to drive a car and his dad was a Dr. and wouldn't ever sugar-coat anything. So I guess I remember that one. Anyway, this is probably a four-star issue if you can handle the aforementioned adverts (that's totally a UK word, isn't it).
August 24, 2015
My wife finds the face on the front of this issue so disturbing that I had to face it backwards on the shelf for years. Now we've moved and the shelf is no longer in our bedroom and so McSweeney's #36 spends his time looking out into my disheveled office. This issue is a mixed bag, or box, or head. The Michael Chabon "ruined" novel chapters booklet is fantastic. I also really enjoyed Jack Pendarvis' Jungle Geronimo in Gay Paree. But then there are the plays, one for the screen and one for the stage. "Bicycle Built for Two" is supposed to be a joke, but it is so remarkably unfunny that reading it pained me. The Domestic Crusaders is a play about a Muslim family in the U.S. It is really heavy handed, thus another arduous read.
August 26, 2011
This issue comes inside a head that opens up. That's right, a head. If I could give it 100 stars just for that, I would. Great writing as always but really McSweeney's outdid themselves with the binding this time! Also includes a cut-as-you-go roll of fortunes, a catfish painting serialized on a set of 4 postcards, various miniature books, pamphlets, and zine-like booklets. Ooh, also a ridiculous screenplay playfully enclosed in a mini manila envelope with a fake hand-written note on the front. BEST EVER. Not to mention that the inside of the box is lined with a design that is clearly McSweeney's idea of what the inside of a head looks like...
June 19, 2011
Major highlights for me were Michael Chabon and Adam Levin's contributions, as well as the play from Wajahat Ali. Colm Tóibín's short story "The Street" was absolutely fantastic, and the fortune cookie scroll was amusing. However, I hated Jungle Geronimo and Bicycle Built For Two wasn't much better. An imperfect, but still good collection in a great package.
My full and more detailed review can be found on Glorified Love Letters.
My full and more detailed review can be found on Glorified Love Letters.
September 21, 2011
A lot of good stuff -- a nice story from Colm Toibin, a great brief excerpt selected by Paul Collins, an interesting play by Wajahat Ali, and a creepy box, among other things -- but the five stars are for the Michael Chabon booklet.
It's the first four chapters of Fountain City, the novel he couldn't finish and then abandoned to write Wonder Boys, about a writer who can't finish a novel. The chapters are extensively annotated with detailed, insightful, funny, and fascinating comments from Chabon. It's an essential book for Chabon fanatics like me and I'm really glad I read it.
It's the first four chapters of Fountain City, the novel he couldn't finish and then abandoned to write Wonder Boys, about a writer who can't finish a novel. The chapters are extensively annotated with detailed, insightful, funny, and fascinating comments from Chabon. It's an essential book for Chabon fanatics like me and I'm really glad I read it.
March 21, 2013
An amazing collection. "A Bicycle Built for Two" is hilarious. Wajahat Ali's play is brilliant. I immediately turned back and re-read Colm Toibin's story after I finished. Honestly, though the best piece has to be Chabon's "Fountain City" to be able to get a glimpse of an author's "wrecked novel" and have it annotated by him, nonetheless. Well, that's worth the price of this thing. All this packaged in a sweaty dude's head. Awesome.
P.S. If you read "The Instructions" preview and don't immediately run out and purchase the novel you're a fool.
P.S. If you read "The Instructions" preview and don't immediately run out and purchase the novel you're a fool.
May 24, 2011
Sometimes formatting takes away from substance, but that statement doesn't apply to the favorites in this edition of McSweeney's. The most special for me was Chabon's novel in progress... who doesn't want to get into the head of such genius?! I'm a sucker, I guess! I love that McSweeney's is embracing art. For a quarterly that has featured graphic novels and comics, may as well take the next step...
February 12, 2016
I've only read the excerpt from Fountain City, the novel Michael Chabon worked on for five years, before abandoning it to write Wonder Boys.
Alongside the four chapters from the novel Chabon provides self-deprecating commentary and analaysis of the novel's flaws, and reflects on other aspects of his life and the writing process.
Best suited to Chabon fans, students of the writing process may also find it of interest.
Alongside the four chapters from the novel Chabon provides self-deprecating commentary and analaysis of the novel's flaws, and reflects on other aspects of his life and the writing process.
Best suited to Chabon fans, students of the writing process may also find it of interest.
May 19, 2011
McSweeney's is a unique magazine, like a happy ode to creativity.
The head on the box didn't really appeal to me, but I like the concept. It is filled with booklets of which I especially liked Chabon's Fountain City. There is plenty of room to put in some of your own memories or stories, but I haven't done that yet.
The head on the box didn't really appeal to me, but I like the concept. It is filled with booklets of which I especially liked Chabon's Fountain City. There is plenty of room to put in some of your own memories or stories, but I haven't done that yet.
March 14, 2011
Meh. The highlight was the fortune cookie scroll and the format. Michael Chabon's annotations of his unfinished novel were pretty annoying at first, but they grew on me. I was hoping a little more substance from the play.
January 16, 2011
Chabon's annotations of his "wrecked" novel are interesting, but overall didn't love the content of this one.
February 17, 2011
Not too impressed with this issue of McSweeney's, despite that it's literature in a sweaty head.
April 12, 2011
McSweeney's 36: Another fantastic collection of fiction includes four chapters of Michael Chabon's unreleased "Fountain City." (5/5)
May 13, 2011
An awesome box of treats!
June 25, 2011
Disclaimer: I only read "Bicycle Built For Two" by Gregg Turkington. That man's a freakin' genius, and this was hysterical!
June 24, 2012
Issue 36 is a curious hodgepodge of writing and amusing tidbits crammed into a creep looking cube. Though it's one of the smallest elements, I especially favor the roll of fortune cookie fortunes.
Want to Read
August 27, 2014i lost my head
September 1, 2011
IT'S A BIG CUBE-SHAPED HEAD. What more do you need to know?
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews