Reviews

It Occurs to Me That I Am America: New Stories and Art by Richard Russo, Joyce Carol Oates, Neil Gaiman

bookworm33's review against another edition

3.0

There were many good stories, especially towards the end of the collection. Some of my faves are:
Speak! Speak! - Julia Alvarez
Finally I am American at Heart - Ha Jin
Top Step - Richard Russo
"Good News!" - Joyce Carol Oates
Fires - Elizabeth Frank
New Blank Document - Lee Child
Getting Somewhere - Susan Isaacs (I hope I would be this brave.)
Learning American Values - Edmund White

christalbotheindl's review

1.0

This was awful. Another case of having an opportunity to tell a well-rounded story of what it means to be American by having Americans from all different walks of life pen it, and instead amplifying "the most acclaimed writers and artists" - code for mostly white, cisgender, old, and straight; acclaimed by people who share their same identity, no doubt. With a few BIPOC folx sprinkled in for good measure (honestly, after completing it, I wondered out loud what Louise Erdrich felt about being part of this collection after it came out. I highly respect her work and wondered.) And as privileged people often do, there were TONS of micro-aggressions from people who probably think of themselves as liberal or forward thinking. There were a number of times when I asked why the storytellers thought they were the right person to tell a story and why they didn't cede space to someone else to tell their own story. There were a couple of times when I wanted to throw the book, but seeing as it belongs to the Denver Library and not, me, I just calmly breathed and set it down instead.

Pieces I thought were worth reading:
"Compline" Stephen L. Carter.
"Intersections" by Mark Di Ionno
"Balancing Acts" by Louise Erdrich
"The Miss April Houses" by Angela Flournoy
"Good News!" by Joyce Carol Oates
"The Way We Read Now" by Justin Torres
"Don't Despair" by Alice Walker

I wonder if it was intentional that you get all the way through this book of mostly privileged, micro-aggressive perspectives (sometimes writing about horrors they will NEVER have to face because of their privilege - basically appropriating other cultures' and times' horrors because they have none) and then read a short story about an incel who is taught by a woman how to feign genuine concern for marginalized people in order to get a rich, white, cisgender, heterosexual woman to have sex with him. And she has sex with him because he presents himself as an oppressed minority, she doesn't understand the difference and believes him, and she wants to give herself to him because of it (legitimately the last short in this collection). I mean, ironic, if not intentional.

8little_paws's review

4.0

This is more than a collection of writings-- there's full color art throughout as well, which makes this a lovely book to own (and sales proceeds go to the ACLU. some of the writing felt rushed, but there's some fine writing here as well. it's a mix of essay and fiction. even though some stories were meh, the art and the ACLU support make this book a "buy".

mlytylr's review against another edition

4.0

like most anthologies --- when it's good, it's very good & when it's bad, it's very bad. at least the proceeds to this one go to the ACLU.