The Believer May 2008

Menacing Earthworks by Alexander Provan Where does our ingrained fear of everything nuclear come from? And how does it affect the way we store our radioactive waste? Poison by Sarah Manguso All autoimmune diseases invoke the metaphor of suicide. The body destroys itself from the inside. The Moon Over the Gate by Per Petterson Why do some people go to the desert to erase themselves?  FULL TEXT “An Original Adventure” by Lisa Levy Elizabeth Hardwick eluded domesticity and became a pioneer of New York women intellectuals.  FULL TEXT Richard Price interviewed by Alec Michod “All good dialogue is funny.” David Cross interviewed by Adam Bulger and Eric Spitznagel A double interview in which, in the spirit of doing something different, the comedian requests two interviews, one with someone who loves him, and one with someone who hates him. Julie Hecht interviewed by Andrew Nellins How publishing is a pigsty, culture is declining, and the Christian Broadcasting Network gets it right. Liso: An Oral History edited by Peter Orner A South African Christian legally brought to America to work illegally struggles to get home.

FULL TEXT The 2007 Believer Book Awards Including the editors’ short list and citations from Eileen Myles, Dean Young, Rivka Galchen, John Haskell, and others. Sedaratives by Mindy Kaling Stuff I’ve Been Reading by Nick Hornby  FULL TEXT Juliana Spahr’s The Transformation reviewed by Stephen Burt Nadine Gordimer’s Beethoven Was One-Sixteenth Black reviewed by Adam Novy Jason Brown’s Why the Devil Chose New England For His Work reviewed by Nina MacLaughlin  FULL TEXT Julio Cortázar and Carol Dunlop’s Autonauts of the Cosmoroute reviewed by Laird Hunt Aaron Fagan’s Garage reviewed by Idra Novey Donald Ray Pollock’s Knockemstiff reviewed by Suzanne Kleid Bruno Schulz’s The Street of Crocodiles reviewed by David Stromberg Old Mosquito & Mother’s Pianos: two new poems