Alternate Realities

Abstract

8 WLT SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2015 new books Alternate Realities by Chelsea Greer Nin Andrews Why God Is a Woman BOA Editions This collection of poems depicts a magical island where women are the dominant sex. In this world, women have always ruled as man’s superiors, subjecting the males to their sexist laws. A young man finds himself exiled from the island, having been unable to live under such an oppressive rule, and bitterly contemplates why God had to be a woman. André Alexis Fifteen Dogs Coach House Books To pass the time, the gods Hermes and Apollo make a bet on whether or not animals could find true happiness after being given human intelligence. Thus, they give human consciousness and language to a group of dogs and watch as the pack is torn between following the old ways of the dog and embracing the new ways offered by their broadened minds. (See page 56 for a full review.) Quintan Ana Wikswo The Hope of Floating Has Carried Us This Far Coffee House Press A group of castaways, tired of the burdens of love, lust, and longing, decide to burrow underground and abandon their human forms in order to avoid human suffering. To live a full life, must they live like humans, or can they find happiness in abandoning their humanity? Antoine Volodine Post-Exoticism in Ten Lessons, Lesson Eleven J. T. Mahany, tr. Open Letter In a post-apocalyptic future, “post-exoticism ” writers have been jailed and are slowly dying off. After the last of these writers finally passes away, journalists try to rediscover the true essence of the post-exoticism movement, and in doing so, they explore the power of literature as a revolutionary force. Notebook Chelsea Greer is a former WLT intern with a degree in English literature. ...