A Fictional History of the United States (with Huge Chunks Missing)

July 31, 2006
This hit-or-miss collection includes new stories by a smattering of seventeen randomly linked writers, some better known (Amy Bloom, Neal Pollack, Darin Strauss) than others (David Rees, Benjamin Weissman, Felicia Luna Lemus). Each tries tackling a moment in American history, be it seemingly miniscule (the 1971 basketball game the Harlem Globetrotters lost, rendered as a charming comic strip by cartoonist and rapper Keith Knight) or generation-defining (veteran Ron Kovic skewering the Vietnam War in "The Recruiters," a pedantic polemic about what happens when soldiers visit a high school). Other topics include the Russian Revolution in America, the Woolworth strikers and the lunar landing. Cooper's and Mansbach's thesis is noble and intellectually rigorous: that "the hegemonic single-narrative of mainstream American history" is essentially fiction in itself. But only Paul LaFarge's delightful McSweeney's-esque story, "The Discovery of America," which provides eleven possible ways the United States came to be founded, really grapples with that issue. Otherwise, we get several pieces about individuals facing the terrors of conservatism or struggling with the immigrant experience. What emerges is a mixed bag of literary ambition that sometimes smells suspiciously of rejected submissions to the New Yorker's Shouts and Murmurs department.

August 15, 2006
Arguing that all history is fiction, editors Cooper ("Lipshitz Six, or Two Angry Blondes") and Mansbach ("Angry Black White Boy") have selected 17 stories for this anthology that intend to describe what else happened beyond the events related in high school history classes. Ranging from Alexander Chee's -Wampeshau, - set in 1426; to Kate Bornstein's -Dixie Belle: The Further Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -; to Daniel Alarcon's -The Adonyne Dreams of Various Imbeciles, - which takes place in an undisclosed era that appears to be the 21st century, these stories run the gamut from hilarious to tragic as they target subjects that are controversial or politically incorrect. The authors, all published novelists, screenwriters, academics, and/or cartoonists, have chosen to reflect on moments in history that moved them, with results that are diverse, readable, entertaining, and compelling. As indicated by the title, large chunks of time are not covered, but readers still get a new perspective on U.S. history. Recommended." -Joanna Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Education Lib., Providence"

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