As we upload Issue 98, we are coming to the end of this abysmal, exhausting year. Spain is again in lockdown (after opening up too soon last summer) as are parts of the U.S. But not in Florida, alas, where I find myself, having been trapped here since mid-July.  U.S. citizens are still not permitted to return to the E.U., so the wait continues. Some recommended reading for these trying times:  Floridian Carl Hiaasen’s Squeeze Me, which is a funny, wacky crime novel, set in Palm Beach with the prez and first lady playing prominent roles. The prez’s code name is Mastodon, which prompts him to ask a secret service agent if the agent can take him to the zoo to see one. We all need a laugh and Hiaasen delivers.

TBR’s offerings this issue begin with English writer Nick Bradley’s Street Fighter II (Turbo).  Set in Japan, a country Bradley is well familiar with, we follow a couple of workmates – a young man and woman – as they chat and drink in a karaoke bar where it comes out that both are lovers of the same video game, which makes them want to have a go at it.  Follow their trajectory across Tokyo which gives way to a moving rumination on life and the city.

Next up, from England as well, is Adrian Slatcher’s Dreams Are Contagious where a dream consultant notes that his clients dream of one thing: Donald Trump. Do you? Is it true dreams are contagious? Amidst relationship problems, our consultant tries to follow up with an ex-client to learn of her outcome – was she cured of the dreams?
 
And from the US comes a story of longing, Wings of a Dove, by Ethan Cade Varnado. It’s a familiar theme – young gay boy yearning for a touch and not yet out of the closet – but in Varnado’s hands, it takes on a special poignancy, pulling the reader gently into the boy’s world.

Also from the US, is Jack King’s Gaslight Lodge, where a young couple, who bought into a timeshare program and joined the Vacation Club, are staying along with the guy’s parents and  “a bunch of retired people with the same shitty timeshare package agreeing on where to go.”  The ski lodge is lovely, but what goes on there reminds us of the “alternate reality” we experience in the political sphere.

In our picks from back issues we have The New Frontier by Jess Walter (issue 80), and I Said One by French author Claire Castillon (issue 75).  Both superb stories.

Our quiz this issue is the Literature of Contemporary Black Crime Writers. Test your knowledge and you’re in the running to win a 30-euro gift certificate from Amazon. For answers to last issue’s quiz, Literature of U.S. Slavery, click here. We had several correct answers; the name drawn was Mick Brewster from Leicestershire, England.

Our book review this issue is on S.A. Crosby’s Blacktop Wasteland, a debut crime novel featuring an intriguing, middle-aged black man. Highly recommended.

Our next issue is due out in March 2021. To be notified when new issues are available, just ‘LIKE’ The Barcelona Review on Facebook (for the Spanish, LIKE Barcelona Review without the THE); or email us to subscribe (gratis, of course), though often our bulk email is blocked from servers so we cannot guarantee a notification.

Jill Adams

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