Status
Genres
Publication
Description
McSweeney's Issue 4 is a box containing 14 booklets. The booklets feature fiction and nonfiction, from Denis Johnson, Haruki Murakami, Sheila Heti, George Saunders, Jonathan Lethem, Rachel Cohen, Lawrence Weschler, Rick Moody, Lydia Davis, and many others. The first of many experiments in book and magazine packaging, McSweeney's Issue 4 marks a departure from the simpler paperback mold of the first three issues. For this issue, authors chose the art and design of their booklet. So, for example, Denis Johnson chose to use his son Matt's doodle for the cover of his three-act play "Hellhound On My Trail." George Saunders gave us a photo he took years ago, in Russia, for the cover of his "Four Institutional Monologues." And we took all of these booklets, and fit them in a box with a wood-footed bird adorned on the top. (For those asking Why?, there is also a booklet devoted to answering that question, written by editor Dave Eggers.) This rare issue, virtually out of print since it was first published, is now lovingly remade with a sturdier, more archive-worthy box and the same wondrous collection of prose.… (more)
User reviews
While the author list is star-studded and the booklets are beautiful little things, the actual writing doesn't always match the presentation. The standouts by far are the non-fiction pieces:
"Symmes Hole" by Paul Collins about a man who advanced a theory that the earth has another world inside it complete with continents, oceans, and animals
Paul Maliszewewski's fascinating article, "Paperback Nabokov," which details the very specific ideas for cover illustrations the famous writer battled for
Another set of art history "Convergences" by the brilliant Lawrence Weschler.
The very short pieces collected in the longer booklet are generally humorous and suffer from being so short they don't engage and often rely on cliché. There are a couple of good pieces, but now most of this material would be published on the McSweeney website. The Letters section is particularly good.
Although the actual contents are a little disappointing, the issue is a beautiful object to own and enjoy. The issue I have is a 2010 second printing of the 2000 original with a sturdier box.