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New Yorker Fiction Review #306: "Hostel" by Fiona McFarlane

Review of the short story from the Mar. 11, 2024 issue of The New Yorker... Fiona McFarlane is one of those rare writers who can awaken me out of my short story reviewing slumber to actually read an entire story and write a review. There was once, if you can believe it, a time when I reviewed these shorts stories on time and in sequence, providing real (or imagined) value to the reading public. But I digress... Fiona McFarlane wrote one of my all-time favorite New Yorker short stories -- "Art Appreciation" from the May 6, 2013 issue --which then led me to read her subsequent novel The Night Guest (2013). Both of which I reviewed on this blog and, while it's been fully 10 years and change since I've read anything by her, her prose made enough of an impression on me that, here I am, eagerly reading and reviewing "Hostel," her latest effort in The New Yorker .  This short story did not fail to remind me why I like Fiona McFarlane's stuff. Her stories alway

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