Dispatches | June 29, 2016
Summer Reading: Books in Boxes
Today, the Missouri Review presents the third installment of the Summer Reading series, designed to provide recommendations for summer reads from authors and Missouri Review staff members. This installment is written by Matthew Baker. His story “The Golden Mean” appears in the Summer 2016 issue.
As research for my novel in progress, this summer I’ve been rereading some books very dear to my heart: Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K Le Guin; Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro; His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman; My Side Of The Mountain by Jean Craighead George; and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.
T
his summer I’ve been reading a pair of “books in boxes,” Composition No. 1 by Marc Saporta and The Unfortunates by B.S. Johnson. Originally published in French in 1962, Composition No.1 is a stack of loose pages in a box; given no indication 
where to begin and where to end, the reader is left to order the pages at random. The Unfortunates came later, originally published in Britain in 1969, and operates somewhat differently—the book is composed of twenty-seven unbound chapters, two of which are marked as the first and the last, while the rest can be read in any order. As a writer interested in interactive storytelling, I’m fascinated by these pre-digital experiments with interactivity. (A new edition of Composition No. 1 is now available from Visual Editions; The Unfortunates is back in print thanks to New Directions.) Incidentally, for a comics version of the “book in a box,” I would also recommend Chris Ware’s Building Stories, which is worth every penny of its $50 list price.
Matthew Baker is the author of If You Find This, a Booklist Top Ten First Novel of 2015 and an Edgar Award Nominee for 2016. His stories have appeared in publications such as American Short Fiction, New England Review, One Story, Electric Literature, and Best of the Net. A recipient of fellowships from the Fulbright Commission, the MacDowell Colony, and the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, he has an MFA from Vanderbilt University, where he was the founding editor of Nashville Review. 
SEE THE ISSUE
SUGGESTED CONTENT
Dispatches
Feb 28 2020
2020 Miller Guest Judge in the Spotlight: Alex Sujong Laughlin
2020 Miller Audio Prize Guest Judge Alex Sujong Laughlin shares her journey to becoming an audio producer, the lens through which she sees the world, and how TikTok makes her… read more
Dispatches
Oct 15 2019
Last Call for Submissions to the Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize
The LASY DAY to enter TMR‘s Editors’ Prize has arrived And with it, the last call. The 29th Annual Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize Contest closes tonight! You have the rest of… read more
Dispatches
Mar 08 2019
Interview with 2019 Miller Audio Prize Guest Judge Cher Vincent
Our guest judge this year, Cher Vincent (she/her), is an audio producer based in Chicago. She is currently Lead Audio Producer for One Illinois, a nonprofit news outlet, covering statewide news and producing… read more