THE NATIONAL VIRGINITY PLEDGE. THE SHORT REVIEW. TANIA HERSHMAN. JULIA BOHANNA. MATT BELL

Huge thanks to TANIA HERSHMAN for including THE NATIONAL VIRGINITY PLEDGE on her site THE SHORT REVIEW. The collection was reviewed by JULIA BOHANNA. Here is a small excerpt:

"Mankind, through lust and hunger, is reduced to Freud’s primal id. Ego weakly moderates those basic instincts now and again. Rarely does the super-ego, the intellect, control proceedings. Graham leaves the analysis to the reader."

Read the rest here:

http://www.theshortreview.com/reviews/BarryGrahamNationalVirginityPledge.htm

Thanks again to both Tania and Julia.

Also included in this issue is an author interview you should check out if you're bored, and other book reviews, one of which is MATT BELL's, HOW THE BROKEN LEAD THE BLIND. Reviewed by STEVEN WINGATE. Here's a small excerpt:

"It is all too easy, in the tiny spaces the subgenre provides, to succumb to its temptations: relying on foreboding, summing people up, dismissing them, or ridiculing them for their lack of self-understanding. But Bell, to his credit, refrains almost entirely from easy potshots and maintains respect for the unknown lives of his characters. (The Present, a bit flippant and out of kilter with the rest of the collection, is the lone exception). He creates a sense that his characters are stuck in a murky purgatory and waiting—mostly with a resigned but edgy patience—to see whether the next day holds an opportunity for clarity."

Read the rest here:

http://www.theshortreview.com/reviews/MattBellHowtheBrokenLeadtheBlind.htm