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When I think about stories I’d recommend for perverts, I think that they can, at their core, be about anything. That is, they don’t have to be sexual or transgressive, although they often are.
To me, they have to be audacious and fearless; they have to be self-assured and big-hearted. They are unconcerned with what you think. They are fearless in their pursuit of emotional truths, an energy which is, admittedly, highly erotic.
The New Narrative movement embodies a sort of perversity that I am fond of. In the introduction to the anthology Writers Who Love Too Much: New Narrative 1977-1997 edited by Dodie Bellamy and Kevin Killian, the editors write of the movement:
“It would be a writing prompted not by fiat nor consensus, nor by the totalizing suggestions of the MFA ‘program era,’ but by community; it would be unafraid of experiment, unafraid of kitsch, unafraid of sex and gossip and political debate.”
That is the energy that I am bringing to this recommendation list.
“Agatha Letters” by Camille Roy: As a prominent member of the New Narrative Movement, Roy is a must-read. “Agatha Letters,” the first story in her latest, Honey Mine, opens with the question: “Is it all point of view? Pleasure, I mean—the surprise in the dark. I suppose it’s different for everyone.” And then it shifts to third-person POV: “To Camille it felt empty and fresh, because she was.” The story, which is experimental in nature, is erotic and insightful, tragic and unafraid. And I fuck with the POV shifts as they relate to distortion, truth, and how we craft stories about ourselves.
“On the Boardwalk” by Robert Glück
“Boyfriend #666 / The Satanist” & “This Day and Many More” by Brontez Purnell
“Moon Over Denny-Blaine” by Max Delsohn
👉 Find all of Mac Crane’s recommendations on Book Riot.