Review of The Girl

Posted on July 6, 2017 by John Biscello

Review of Meridel Le Sueur’s The Girl, appearing in Riot Material.

“The Girl is set in St. Paul, Minnesota, during the Depression, with much of its action centered in a speakeasy known as The German Village. This is where the protagonist, a young naïf who is only referred to as “Girl,” works as a waitress and initiates her crash-course into a harsh and unsentimental education. To metaphorically anthropomorphize the world of The Girl, and its stylistic tone, imagine Jamaica Kincaid, Ernest Hemingway, and Clifford Odets shooting the shit in a gin joint run by Eugene O’ Neill. In fact, the vividly drawn characters of The Girl would fit right in with the barflies and pipe-dreamers of O’Neil’s The Iceman Cometh.”

Read the full review here.

About John Biscello

Originally from Brooklyn, NY, writer, poet, performer, and playwright, John Biscello, has lived in the high-desert grunge-wonderland of Taos, New Mexico since 2001. He is the author of four novels, Broken Land, a Brooklyn Tale, Raking the Dust, Nocturne Variations, and No Man’s Brooklyn; a collection of stories, Freeze Tag, two poetry collections, Arclight and Moonglow on Mercy Street; and a fable, The Jackdaw and the Doll, illustrated by Izumi Yokoyama. He also adapted classic fables, which were paired with the vintage illustrations of artist, Paul Bransom, for the collection: Once Upon a Time, Classic Fables Reimagined. His produced, full-length plays include: LOBSTERS ON ICE, ADAGIO FOR STRAYS, THE BEST MEDICINE, ZEITGEIST, U.S.A., and WEREWOLVES DON’T WALTZ.

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