Barrelhouse Reviews: Gender/Fucking by Florence Ashley
They discuss the messiness and double standards that come from talking about gender, sexuality, and eroticism, especially in academic settings.
Barrelhouse Reviews: The Loneliness Files by Athena Dixon
Measured sentences draw the reader into the emotional dome she inhabits. The book’s even tone avoids associative leaps and instead mirrors the quotidian effort to keep going, day after day.
Barrelhouse Reviews: Dispatches from Puerto Nowhere by Robert Lopez
His central question: what does being Puerto Rican mean to me now, given that it has meant nothing through most of my life?
Barrelhouse Reviews: Places we Left Behind by Jennifer Lang
All these strategies prod both the reader and the narrator to consider what she isn’t prepared to express outright.
Barrelhouse Reviews: All the Wrong Places by Ruth Crossman
Crossman doesn’t want to put a bow on things--the fear of loss persists; it’s merely taken new shape.
Barrelhouse Reviews: I’m Never Fine by Joseph Lezza
The title of this collection of essays is as much an admission as a threat. Or rather, as much an explanation as an expiation.
Barrelhouse Reviews: The Traces by Mairead Small Staid
As the book drew to a close, I was filled with the same satisfied fatigue as when leaving a vast museum.