by Laird Hunt
First published 2023
Laird Hunt explores how fiction shapes memory and experience in this collection of personal essays. The Zorrie author uses literary works as guides through his own life, letting Jane Bowles illuminate his travels in Palermo and finding storytelling lessons in museum taxidermy displays. Hunt weaves together fairytales with influences from W. G. Sebald, Willa Cather, and László Krasznahorkai as he moves from United Nations intrigue to a Nebraska roadside breakdown. He examines subjects ranging from denim's origins to childhood's risky games, tracing memory's unpredictable routes. Hunt writes with precise, spare language that captures both the concrete details of experience and the ways fiction helps us understand our lives.
Genres: essays, literary-fiction, american-fiction, biography-memoir, 21st-century, academic
Vibes: emotional, intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: literary-influences, personal-essays
Setting: Nebraska, Palermo, United Nations
Period: 21st Century
176 pages · Paperback · Coffee House Press