Claire Boyle

First off, this was a nice little surprise to come in at the end of the year, as there had only been two previous McSweeney's issues in 2023. Next, it's the smallest issue of McSweeney's to date, three small booklets in a colorful belly band just over five inches tall. Two of the booklets play with how we usually read books: you have to hold them in landscape mode in order to read them.

One booklet is a fascinating, essentially two-character play called "The Headliners" that challenges gender roles and identity and is based on a true episode involving America's biggest stage stars of the early 20th century. One character is a brash self-promoting comedienne, and the other is a serious-about-his-craft female impersonator. It premiered in Denver in 2023 and I wouldn't mind seeing it someday.

The longest booklet contains the stories and letters and it's the usual bag of mixed nuts. The best stories for me included Jim Shepard's outstanding "The Testament of Edward Hyde," a retelling of the Jekyll and Hyde tale, often from the point of view of Hyde. Shepard's use of Victorian language feels perfect. Another great piece was Kevin Moffett's "An Education," which reads like memoir and becomes increasingly poignant. The booklet also contains the award-winning story and runner-up of the first Stephen Dixon Award for Short Fiction. I can't really say that the stories measure up to writing of Mr. Dixon, but it's an award for emerging writers so perhaps we'll see more writing from these two young ladies in the future.

The last booklet is titled "From the Bus" and it's Tim Heidecker's tour diary from his Two Tims tour of 2023. One part of the show was standup with Tim generally being an annoying, anti-funny comic, and the other was a concert of him performing original songs backed by what seems to be a pretty great band. This booklet makes me worry a little bit about McSweeney's. The writing is competent and observant but not funny and not insightful and definitely too long at 170 pages. It's a nice little memento for Tim but I had a pretty good idea of what traveling cross-country by bus on tour was like and this didn't really provide any illumination.… (mer)

This issue has five different sections each printed with pages that have different sizes or colors than the others and yet they all share the same binding. Physically, it's a very strange item. Noteworthy here is that the Cliffhanger stories started in issue 57 are concluded; it was a neat trick and the anticipation probably made at least one of the stories better than it really was. This issue also has four essays from the likes of Dave Eggers and Neil Gaiman celebrating historic ACLU cases along with why the case is important to each of the authors and society as a whole. In addition there's a glossy photo spread, which seems to address self-image, and an excerpt from Whitney Emerson's book, "Heaven."… (mer)