We’re reading Deborah Eisenberg’s Twilight of the Superheroes in my fiction workshop this week, which I’m really glad of, as I would otherwise have been unlikely to re-visit it, and I would have missed a lot that I didn’t get on my first reading, when the book came out in 2006.  I was really into Eisenberg’s previous work then, but for some reason—the title story, I think; more on that below—I decided that since I preferred her earlier collections I didn’t “need” this one and in a fit of misdirected organization sold my hardcover copy, so now I’m reading from a trade paperback.  I miss the hardcover vibe of I AM IMPORTANT ENOUGH TO BE IN HARDCOVER AND HAVE DECKLED EDGES.  DECKLED!

But—reading Eisenberg.  It’s like treading water in a sea of smart.

continue reading The Spine Of The Story