A daring, triumphant work of searing beauty. the last interview
THE LAST INTERVIEW
a point, anyway—the point at which the story turns. This is probably the most literal iteration of McGuire’s ongoing argument that biology is not destiny. The author can’t seem to stay away from transmitting these messages over and over, both in this series and in her other works, but she does transmit them beautifully, and some people may need to read them over and over, either for reassurance or to let the ideas sink in. Possibly preachy, but usefully so, and eloquently expressed.
Nevo, Eshkol Trans. by Silverston, Sondra Other Press (352 pp.) $17.99 paper | Oct. 13, 2020 978-163542-987-9
An Israeli writer gives an in-depth interview that unravels the story of his life and art. Most interviews purport to expose some previously unknown truth, however trivial, about the interview subject. Nevo’s new novel asks the question: What would it mean for the interviewee to actually tell that “truth”—and how might the idea of truth telling be complicated if the interviewee were in the business of fiction writing? In trenchant, lovely prose—beautifully translated by Silverston—Nevo uses the unconventional structure of a literary interview to reveal the cracks in the facade of a writer’s relationship to himself, his work, and the world. Nevo excels at revealing—and reveling in—the exquisite within the mundane. As the interviewer moves from question to question, the protagonist leads the reader through various vignettes of his life; though the questions themselves range from basic to profound, each answer pulls the reader further into the protagonist’s vibrant inner world. The juxtaposition of the artificial medium of the interview with the increasing vulnerability that the writer displays in his answers is quietly radical. The emotional stakes are further heightened, and the narrative propelled, by the sometimes-jarring nature of this sort of structure: Often, the interviewer interrupts the narrative with a new question just at the point when a section is at its most moving or engrossing. The result is a compelling page-turner of quiet beauty and power. Drawing upon a rich Jewish literary heritage that stretches from Bialik to Oz to Roth, Nevo pushes the boundaries of fiction both formally and thematically, challenging the reader at every turn to reconsider their conceptions of the relationship between truth and fiction. A daring, triumphant work of searing beauty.
NORA A Love Story of Nora and James Joyce O’Connor, Nuala Harper Perennial/HarperCollins (496 pp.) $16.99 paper | Jan. 5, 2021 978-0-06-299172-0
Nora Barnacle, lifelong partner to James Joyce and model for Molly Bloom in Ulysses, moves center stage in a story of loyal love tested over years of poverty and effort. Young Nora, a bold, freethinking, uneducated girl from a poor Galway background, narrates this biographical saga in evocative Irish tones, offering a more-or-less conventional 20
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1 october 2020
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fiction
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kirkus.com
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