The Fiction Fix is your weekly dose of short story. If that’s not your drug of choice, too bad: consider it medicine. Every week, we’ll scour the literary magazines you don’t have time to read, online and in print, and let you know where to find one story worth reading.
We’ve been meaning to tell you about Pasha Malla‘s story collection, The Withdrawal Method, for a while now.It’s good and weird and a little imperfect in that way that writers sometimes are before they hit it exactly right and publish something that blows your mind. Today’s Fiction Fix was the perfect opportunity, because Malla has a story in the latest issue of Tin House, which features the tantalizing theme “appetites.” Malla’s story describes the appetites of one small boy and his big sister’s friends, which run to peanut butter, Clue, pre-pubescent rape fantasies, and of course, New Kids on the Block.
“Ginny had once told Alex that Heather loved Jordan Knight so much that some nights she would just cry and cry and cry.”
Dude. Kids are creepy.