David Annand
The Heroes We Need
When the Nines Roll Over and Other Stories
By David Benioff
Sceptre 240pp £16.99
‘Even in my fantasies I wasn’t the hero,’ laments Mackenzie, the narrator of ‘Zoanthropy’, one of the stories in this new collection from the enthusiastically touted young American author and screenplay writer David Benioff. This line would not have jarred in most of the pieces, for the central character is rarely the driving force in these narratives. Instead, it is the lovers and fathers, the cuckolded and abandoned who are charismatic. The protagonists are bland and mundane; even success seems to come to them at a price not worth paying. They are narrators rather than heroes.
American men are Benioff’s terrain, and when he strays from depicting them he is at his least convincing as with the story set in Chechnya, and ‘Garden of No’, written from the perspective of an actress. But on his home turf he is brilliant.
The men are burdened with unrealisable goals
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
Knowledge of Sufism increased markedly with the publication in 1964 of The Sufis, by Idries Shah. Nowadays his writings, much like his father’s, are dismissed for their Orientalism and inaccuracy.
@fitzmorrissey investigates who the Shahs really were.
Fitzroy Morrissey - Sufism Goes West
Fitzroy Morrissey: Sufism Goes West - Empire’s Son, Empire’s Orphan: The Fantastical Lives of Ikbal and Idries Shah by Nile Green
literaryreview.co.uk
Rats have plagued cities for centuries. But in Baltimore, researchers alighted on one surprising solution to the problem of rat infestation: more rats.
@WillWiles looks at what lessons can be learned from rat ecosystems – for both rats and humans.
Will Wiles - Puss Gets the Boot
Will Wiles: Puss Gets the Boot - Rat City: Overcrowding and Urban Derangement in the Rodent Universes of John B ...
literaryreview.co.uk
Twisters features destructive tempests and blockbuster action sequences.
@JonathanRomney asks what the real danger is in Lee Isaac Chung's disaster movie.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/eyes-of-the-storm