Mark Athitakis

I ordered this as part of a collection of books from Belt Publishing, an independent publisher that features writers from the Midwest. Mark Athitakis has presented a much needed compact and helpful guide on fiction from the Midwest. He spends time upfront scoping out the topic explaining the Midwest belies any easy territorial definition and leaves the genre open to include the areas of the Great Lakes, Great Plains, and Rust Belt. What he doesn't define are the borders of what's contemporary so it's not clear where we're beginning. He does mention canonical writers of the Midwest without including Sherwood Anderson or Booth Tarkington. In fact, there's only a passing reference to Sherwood Anderson's seminal Winesburg, Ohio. If anything detracted from the book, it was the author's tone about his subject and certain authors. He almost seems not to like the Midwest making broad statements about its lies and myths. I'm not sure whose lies or whose myths he's rallying against. He's also surprisingly dismissive of one of the most well-known writers, Michigan native Jim Harrison, who Athitakis says he read only based only on a colleague's recommendation. His tone implies Harrison is an obscure writer without acknowledging the award-winning Harrison's dozen or so books set in Michigan or his several books of poetry. Despite these distractions, Athitakis should get credit for as he says, "he's started a discussion" about Midwest writers.… (més)

This little book is chock full of authors and titles that have centered their work in the Midwest. A thorough and scholarly study, it examines themes like migration/immigration, hard work (or the fallacy thereof), and childhood among others. "The New Midwest explores how writers have reconsidered the long-rutted narrative pathways that have defined the region. Hard work is not necessarily redemptive. Love isn't always submission. Nor is churchgoing. Immigrants aren't universally noble, hardscrabble souls." (13) Two challenges immediately presented themselves to Athitakas: defining the states that make up the midwest and how to account for the fact that most of the contemporary writing that is set there is about the past. His theory: "...just as the books that are set in the present day are reckoning with the past, the books set in the past are aruging with the present.Midwestern Fiction today is a living manifestation of the tension between the region's old idealism and present day reality." (9) He notes that many past authors wouldn't have been able to tackle certain subjects in their contemporary times (race, sexuality, gender identity) but they existed so present day author are exhuming these issues. In earlier fiction (prior to 1950), "...they are assimilation novels: the prevailing question is: How do I become an American? The prevailing question today is now slightly different: "How do I become myself in this place?" (17) These are great questions to ponder and the author does a great job of using specific works and authors to figure it out. Great feature of the book: a 5 page "appendix" of additional authors not covered extensively in the book, with summaries and commentary on their work. Well done!… (més)

Book critic and Illinois native Mark Athitakis has written here a lively book about the fiction of the midwest, providing a concise yet sweeping overview of the region's literature and making a case for its centrality to ever-evolving landscape of American literature. The project has a welcome reader in me, as I have written more than once about the importance of regional voice to a nation's collective literary identity, by way of bemoaning the homogenizing effect of contemporary life and especially, in my view, of MFA programs. Athitakis's central theme is that the midwest is often perceived, fictionally or otherwise, as a cozy everytownland of simple folkspun verities, whereas the truth, as much of its best fiction illustrates, is substantially darker and more dangerous. The thesis is borne out with insightful readings of writers like Jane Smiley, Marilynne Robinson, Jonathan Franzen, and others. A lucid and well-executed overview, of a kind we could do with more of.… (més)