Happiness: Ten Years of n+1

In just ten years, the Brooklyn magazine n+1 has seen its founders and contributors break into the mainstream of American literature and publishing. This collection of work features at least one essay from each of the founding editors, stories and essays from several of the magazine's most prominent stars, and four unsigned editorials that attempt to capture the zeitgeist of the times. However, the quality of the contributions varies wildly. Some of the essays, like Mark Greif's proposal for the redistribution of wealth, read as amateurish and overly earnest. Other pieces, like the short story "Fish Rot" by Rebecca Curtis, are so far off the beaten path they seem lost. Elif Batuman's wonderful essay on Isaac Babel (which also appears in her acclaimed 2010 collection, The Possessed), however, stands out as a highlight. Batuman masterfully weaves together literary history and personal experience, to entrancing effect. Emily Witt's daring essay on sexuality reports directly from the set of a public dominatrix video shoot and raises several provocative questions, starting with the title: "What Do You Desire?" Ultimately, the collection's unevenness is illustrative of an ambitious but young magazine's growing pains. There's hope that its next ten years will produce even more consistently substantive and enduring writing. (Sept.)