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N+1 Issue 6: Mainstream
MAINSTREAM, featuring Helen Dewitt's new novel, "Your Name Here"; Wesley Yang on the Virginia Tech shootings; Caleb Crain's "Sweet Grafton"; Mark Greif's "Only a Gore Can Save Us"; plus "The Birth of the Office" and "In Search of Gawker."
- GenresNonfiction
231 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2008
2 people are currently reading
43 people want to read
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n+1
59Ìýbooks127Ìýfollowersn+1 is a print journal of politics, literature, and culture, published originally twice a year and now three times a year.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 4, 2025
The rest of the issue is more or less what you’d expect, aside from the poems of Kirill Medvedev, which will leave you shaking your head at what happened to him, but the reason to seek out this issue is the bit of history publishing is finally, finally catching up with.
The copy I tracked down after years of yearning still had its original Powell’s receipt in it. Some hipster bought it and actually had the thing tucked in the middle of Helen DeWitt (& Ilya Gridneff)’s Your Name Here (first chapter), as if they couldn’t be bothered.
I first read DeWitt after The Last Samurai topped a list of the best fiction published so far this century a handful of years back. This didn’t exactly lead to a surge of interest in her career (aside from me), although eventually New Directions included her in a chapbook series with new material.
What a terrible crime against the culture. Your Name Here became a kind of legendary work. She couldn’t find a publisher. She had another novel and a collection of short stories published, but otherwise settled into a life of anonymous exile. She briefly made the manuscript available online, and of course the first chapter in this journal in 2008, but that was years before Last Samurai briefly resurfaced, which itself was years before New Directions tepidly championed her.
But the book is finally scheduled for publication this fall!
So is it worth it? I can imagine that it scared publishers as much as it did because it’s in fact gonzo literature. She knew exactly what she was doing. We don’t appear to live in times that can appreciate such audacity. Which is a shame. I mean, we’re still slavishly devoted to the gonzo literature of the past, aren’t we? So why shy away from new material, a brilliant new addition to the canon? Thompson and Pynchon, meet your successor. That’s what’s here. That’s the name being inserted here.
And that’s what was robbed from us for two decades. Does she have the spirit to keep this up, assuming anyone this time bothers showing up?
God, I hope so.
The copy I tracked down after years of yearning still had its original Powell’s receipt in it. Some hipster bought it and actually had the thing tucked in the middle of Helen DeWitt (& Ilya Gridneff)’s Your Name Here (first chapter), as if they couldn’t be bothered.
I first read DeWitt after The Last Samurai topped a list of the best fiction published so far this century a handful of years back. This didn’t exactly lead to a surge of interest in her career (aside from me), although eventually New Directions included her in a chapbook series with new material.
What a terrible crime against the culture. Your Name Here became a kind of legendary work. She couldn’t find a publisher. She had another novel and a collection of short stories published, but otherwise settled into a life of anonymous exile. She briefly made the manuscript available online, and of course the first chapter in this journal in 2008, but that was years before Last Samurai briefly resurfaced, which itself was years before New Directions tepidly championed her.
But the book is finally scheduled for publication this fall!
So is it worth it? I can imagine that it scared publishers as much as it did because it’s in fact gonzo literature. She knew exactly what she was doing. We don’t appear to live in times that can appreciate such audacity. Which is a shame. I mean, we’re still slavishly devoted to the gonzo literature of the past, aren’t we? So why shy away from new material, a brilliant new addition to the canon? Thompson and Pynchon, meet your successor. That’s what’s here. That’s the name being inserted here.
And that’s what was robbed from us for two decades. Does she have the spirit to keep this up, assuming anyone this time bothers showing up?
God, I hope so.
November 1, 2008
This is a pretty cool periodical, you know. It's like, pretty good in terms of politics and literature and culture and whatnot. There's a great short story in there, I forget what it's called I think it's called Sweet ...something, I'd have to check. I'll see what future editions have in store for me. I mean it's better than just 3/5 stars, I'll say that.
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