The Brooklyn Rail Fiction Anthology 2

This prodigious anthology from the monthly journal embodies the duality of its title: it implies a place of origin, but also suggests a journey. Expectedly, the eclectic collection features many works in translation by authors from countries as far flung as Japan, India, Uruguay, and Kuwait, and representing an equally diverse selection of styles including plays, modern short stories, and a post-modern comic entitled "Tragic Strips." Editor Breckinridge favors the non-traditional, like the surreal screenplay %E2%80%98The Hardboiled Egg" by Eug%C3%A9ne Ionesco. Marquis de Sade makes an appearance with an excerpt from a philosophical novel and Charles Bukowski with a quietly introspective piece about a man selling his classical record collection to a pair of nuns. These classics come among alongside an assortment of perfectly-crafted stories from innovative contemporary American writers Laird Hunt, Dawn Raffel, Douglas Glover, and Shelley Jackson, ensuring the journey is replete with unexpected twists and turns, and plenty of food for thought, along the way. There is no cohesive theme to bind this miscellaneous collection of fiction, and perhaps that is the point. At the start of each story, the reader wonders where they will be taken next, and the journey is always thought-provoking. (May)