Politically Inspired

From Publishers Weekly
Triggered by the post-9/11 changes in the political landscape, this erratic collection of 29 short stories offers new fiction from the likes of Charles Baxter, Anne Ursu, Mark Lee and a host of lesser-known authors from around the world. Edited by writer Stephen Elliott, the anthology begins with Ursu's playfully sardonic "The President's New Clothes." President Bush finds himself trapped in the body of a young Minnesota schoolboy who, despite Dubya's best efforts, can't get anyone to believe that the leader of the free world in Washington, D.C., literally has the mind of a child. Baxter's contribution, "Innocent," is a short dialogue about a man who, in fear of the horror and messiness of "getting involved," flees the scene of a deadly highway accident he has just witnessed-a metaphor for America's attitude toward international conflict and cooperation. Lee's "Memo to Our Journalists" is a short, punchy list of editorial precautions to reporters in Iraq. It includes such pithy advice as "If you and your embedded unit are lost in the countryside and searching for the main road, remember that every adult in the world lies about most things much of the time. Look for a smart, honest nine-year-old." While many of the stories explore such worthwhile topics as the so-called "human shields" in Iraq, efforts to horde Cipro during the anthrax scare and post-apocalyptic sex after 9/11, some of the writing is painfully amateurish. The abundance of inexperienced authors on the roster causes some intriguing conceits to get lost in the shuffle; as an exercise in subversive fiction, this is an interesting if spotty experiment.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
As artists have always held a mirror up to society and contemplated its reflection through their unique creative interpretations, so do the authors contributing to Elliott's anthology examine current political events and cultural mores proliferating in a post-9/11 world. All original and all previously unpublished, the 29 entries come from established authors such as Stewart O'Nan and Charles Baxter, and from emerging new voices such as ZZ Packer and Anne Ursu, and represent a global response that reaches from Africa to Europe, from the Mideast to the Far East. Both inner-city violence and suburban malaise are explored. Schoolboys are forced to wear burqas to experience the oppression of women. A graphic interpretation featuring the Marx Brothers ponders the antiterrorist capabilities of duct tape. Such political ramifications of childhood and culture, desire and destruction, fear and war are acerbically and luminously rendered in literary presentations of startling ingenuity. Royalties from the book's sales will go to support Oxfam America, a privately funded humanitarian agency. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Kirkus (starred review)
"A superb collection, without a single dud. Grab it."


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September 11, the War on Terror, the invasion of Iraq . . . . Why not explore our new reality through fiction, the truest gauge of the national psyche? That was Elliott�s bright idea. And the result? A deeply impressive collection of 26 previously unpublished stories. Novelist Elliott (What It Means to Love You, 2002, etc.) has chosen a dynamite opener: "The President�s New Clothes," by Anne Ursu. Using the familiar gimmick of the body-switch, Ursu has Dubya waking up in the body of a Minnesotan kid. What follows is sunny, upbeat and lethal, the perfect fable for an empty-suit presidency. Four stories focus on 9/11 and its immediate aftermath; not surprisingly, the surreal version ("Mr. Mxyzptlk�s Opus," by Ben Greenman) is as effective as realistic treatments like the "End-of-the-World Sex," by Tsaurah Litzhy, which highlights the correlation of sex and death. Two fine stories examine the effect of politics and terrorism on personal relationships. In Alicia Erian�s "The Winning Side," husband and wife protest together the detention of immigrants, yet perversely their marriage drifts further onto the rocks, while in "Should I Be Scared?" by Amanda Eyre Ward, the anthrax scare opens up a rift in another marriage. Six authors take on the Persian Gulf wars. In "Freedom Oil," Anthony Swofford has an oilman put together a showbiz sendoff for our boys at San Diego airport. Two marines fresh out of boot camp are sucked into a swirl of sex, liquor, and phony patriotism. The flip side is the story that cannot be told too often, seldom better done than here: the homecoming of the soldier who is still living with the horror ("The Designated Marksman," Otis Haschemeyer). Two other gems must bementioned: the wickedly on-target notes of sessions with public figures by a real-life dominatrix ("All in a Day�s Work," by Mistress Morgana), and a small masterpiece of absurdist logic by the Palestinian Nasri Hajjaj, about a man who slaughters his family and is promptly honored by his nation�s leader ("I Believe I�m in Love With the Government"). A superb collection, without a single dud. Grab it.


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