Each week I review the short fiction from a recent issue of The New Yorker . If you told me when I was 12 that I'd be doing this I'd have been like, "Dork. There's no such thing as blogs," and I'd have been right... Issue: Aug. 12 & 19, 2013 Story: "Meet the President!" Author: Zadie Smith (Please note: I've developed a highly sophisticated grading system, which I'll be using from now on. Each story will now receive a Final Grade of either READ IT or DON'T READ it. See the bottom of the review for this story's grade...after you've read the review, natch.) Plot: Set in England, far into the future (lets say 2113) a privileged youth of 15, named Bill Peek, encounters a few poor villagers from a small, abandoned coastal town on the southeast shore. He meets a little girl named Aggie, who is going to her sister's funeral. Peek is cut-off from real life by a sophisticated video game system that is implanted in his
The world's leading source for Grant Catton's opinions.