¡Que Linda! Bon Chance! Online Journal Publishes in Multiple Languages
The Fall 2013 English version of The Barcelona Review makes no secret the accomplishments of its contributors. Before diving into this online magazine, the homepage presents the reader with a narrative describing a sampling of the works and authors featured: double contributor Toby Litt, Jodi Angel, and Susan Steinberg are all noted for their novel and short story collection accomplishments. Of the new material, only Glen Pourciau is simply listed. In addition to these five new fiction selections, two pieces from back issues are included, along with a literary quiz and a book review by the editor.
“Paddy and Veronika” and “Kavita and Dr. Mehrotra,” both by Toby Litt, the sole British writer among a group of Americans, take conventional ideas--the temptation of a desirable foreign nanny and the helplessness of a dying woman--and play with the ideas of these plots. Although they are not linked, both share a theme of wishful infidelity as the solution to other, more pressing issues. Litt’s narratives feel familiar in the style and pacing, yet include small twisting surprises. The selections are character driven as they focus on the third person narratives of Paddy and Kavita, respectively, through prudently placed dialogue.
Jodi Angel’s “Catch the Grey Dog” is actually a reprint from her 2013 collection, You Only Get Letters from Jail, which is also reviewed in this issue by Editor Jill Adams. Looking at the world through the lens of a teenage boy in a world of disappointment and lies, Angel’s work feels reminiscent of John Updike’s excavation of Americana in the 1960s. Her narrator, Sonny, resides in a landscape where adults thrive on their own selfishness, ignoring the way their behavior devours their children. The consumption of youth by selfish adults is both a figurative and literal metaphor throughout the story.
“Underthings,” by Susan Steinberg utilizes a more poetic sense of prose as her narrator reconciles the violence present in various forms throughout her life. Free from dialogue, she loops through image puzzles in an almost chant-like fashion. This story is also reprinted from a collection, Steinberg’s Spectacle. What is most compelling about “Underthings” is Steinberg’s spin on the battered woman idea as the reader sees a woman who is both the violated and the violator. Violence in this frame is a complex thing that manifests in many ways, through mishandled books and destroyed birds.
In Glen Pourciau’s “Leak” the reader is trapped on the receiving end of a monologue from a profoundly normal and boring speaker. There is a familiarity in the speech pattern and utter banalness of the speaker’s fixations and tangents. While it lacks the surprises of some of the other works, it has an authenticity that is well captured without becoming dull. It’s amusing in its simplicity.
The two works from the back issue, “Surviving Darwin” by Alicia Gifford and “WLUV” by Emily Carter, align with the style that seems most prevalent in The Barcelona Review--conventional narratives aimed for a literary audience who have little interest in the experimental. For those who enjoy quizzes, the magazine does feature a literary quiz (now closed) with a prize for the lucky random winner with the correct answers.
Overall the English version of the magazine is fine. The quantity of original content versus reprints is favorable toward reprints from collections and old issues: out of seven selections, three are original (and two of those three are by the same author). Readers and writers of Spanish and Catalan might prefer to read the content in those languages as there is slightly more diversity, particularly in the Spanish version, which features video and poetry in addition to the fiction and articles. The French edition has smaller offerings than the English version. Spanish readers should review that section if just for Esther Zarraluki’s poem “Coure cremat amb àcid barra de ferro i volum de plom,” which showcases her divine word play and grasp of rhythm in free verse.
Perhaps more diversity in the prose category would benefit the English version, as would paragraph breaks in some of the longer selections. Artistic vision aside, the wide red margins coupled with few visual breaks in some of the stories make those pieces harder to read than others. The graphics at the top of each story also lack the visual punch of the home page image, presenting like cut and paste clip art rather than enhancing images to accompany the stories.
