Today is Monday. Tomorrow will be Tuesday. Then comes Wednesday and so on and so forth. Time ticks on and we are forced to experience each new day, feel ourselves transformed by the passing of time. We may be able to stand still or take steps backward, but we cannot avoid being swept up in…

On the cover, a handful of pills piled into the crevice made by the cupping of two gloved hands. Inside, a novel of individuals and families, of their different medications, both prescribed and over-the-counter, and the myriad problems these “typical” Americans use as crutches. The novel is also an attempt to capture and reveal the…

A dying man on his bed, feverish, sick with liver pain, exhausted from years of illness and poverty. He knows he hasn’t much time and yet he does not rest, he does not lie back and simply think over his life. He is still alive, and life equals work. He cannot stop working. Paper to…

If you stand in front of the hors d’oeuvres table and nibble all night long, never making it to the main buffet with the meat and potatoes, you might walk away sated… stuffed, even. But did you have dinner? Maybe not. Of course, a person could live on appetizers a good long, happy time. Joseph…

Outlaws and Outsiders is the theme of Blood Lotus #19, an online quarterly which has been publishing poetry, fiction and other hybrid forms since 2006. The pieces collected here, presented in an elegant and streamlined online viewer, one of the best this reviewer has ever seen, are as much a celebration of the individual at…

“Man, who the hell is they and who the frig is us?” asks one of the characters in Tiphanie Yanique’s story “Kill the Rabbits” from her 2010 collection How to Escape from a Leper Colony. The phrase “kill the rabbits” comes from a popular song, and it means, one character explains to another, to kill…

What are the parents of handicapped children allowed to say about their experience? That it is hard, of course, that they are sad, yes. But how about a father admitting that he feels like closing his eyes and pressing a little harder on the gas pedal when driving the kids home from school? This avowal…

New York. New Year’s Eve. Part One of Quim Monzo’s Gasoline begins with Heribert Julia, a successful contemporary artist in preparation for a large gallery show. Heribert has three weeks to complete a staggering number of paintings. We are told this usually wouldn’t be a problem, only now he can’t seem to focus. Moving forward…

Happy New Year and welcome to Necessary Fiction’s first book review. I’d like to quickly say hello and mention how delighted I am to begin work here as reviews editor. I’d also like to explain why I selected Joanna Ruocco’s novel The Mothering Coven for our first review. First and foremost, it is an excellent…

Set during the time surrounding 9/11, Tyler’s Last is a mesmerizing literary thriller that weaves together two intricate plotlines—one involving Eve, a famous crime writer also known as “the old lady,” conceived in the image of Patricia Highsmith, and another involving Eve’s favorite protagonist, Tyler Wilson. Tyler is an aging criminal whose life is rattled by Cal…