Reviews for Granta 28: The Anniversary Issue

The average rating for Granta 28: The Anniversary Issue based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-04-18 00:00:00 Darnell Haynes For a while, I was a fan of the Granta collections, which mixed fiction with photojournalism, history, memoirs, and non-fiction. It was hard to get bored with any edition, as there was something for everyone. Eventually, I moved on to other obsessions (ice cream, Bryan Ferry recordings, ice cream) but some of the old Granta publications still hold forth in my personal library. As the title states, this particular volume is the birthday special when Granta turned ten (1989). There are some big time writers in this one, including the following: Salman Rushdie His poem is about the protests against his Satanic Verses book. To sing on, in spite of attacks, to sing (while my dreams are being murdered by facts) praises of butterflies broken on racks. Nadine Gordimer The Ultimate Safari relates how a young girl views the loss of her parents and homeland as war makes her a refugee. Richard Rayner A Discourse On The Elephant is not what you think and at first I wasn't interested. But it got me by the end. There are also works from Russell Hoban, John Updike, and Mario Vargas Llosa, among others. But the best section is the beginning with Tiananmen Square by John Simpson, a breathtaking account of what actually happened when the young Chinese students were obliterated by China's government. If the rest of this book was as spellbinding, it would rank as one of Granta's best, but the rest was fairly average. Book Season = Winter (Internationale)

Review # 2 was written on 2019-05-26 00:00:00 Tseb Smaerd I recently came across Granta 28 from 1989 and decided to read it, because it has pieces from several writers I admired (Salman Rusdie, Nadine Gordimer, Leonard Michaels, Jay McInerney, John Updike, and Mario Vargas Llosa) as well as pieces from writers I have been aware of but haven't read (such as Guy Davenport, William Boyd, Jeanette Winterson, Joy Williams, and Colin Thurbron). There were also a couple of photography collections: Marketa Luskacova's "Pilgrims in Ireland" and Eugene Richards' "Americans." Most pieces were of interest to me and some of the standouts included: John Simpson's tense non fiction piece ""Tiananmen Square, "Gordiner's "The Ultimate Safari," Boyd's "Transfigured Night," Russel Hoban's inventive meta-fiction "The Man with the Daggar," and "Jimmy" by McInerney. It is a good collection of interesting short pieces.