Ten Favorite Works of Myopic* Fiction
(From the cover copy of Allan Cameron’s Presbyopia: “Cameron’s collection of bilingual poetry is introduced by an essay on the distinction between myopic and presbyopic poetry: the former focuses on the self, its emotions and its immediate vicinity, while the latter focuses on what is distant in space and time.” Here, organized alphabetically by author, are ten successful works of fiction that possess a myopic, as opposed to a presbyopic, gaze.)
Abbott Awaits by Chris Bachelder
What Belongs to You by Garth Greenwell
Kleinzeit by Russell Hoban
A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood
Nobody Is Ever Missing by Catherine Lacey
The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector
My Happy Life by Lydia Millet
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg
T. Singer by Dag Solstad
* I hope it’s obvious that I mean this in the technical. not the pejorative, sense. I admire all these novels.
— July 3, 2021