Some might say it digs into today?s writing culture. Others might call it literary chic. But Granta is, essentially, creative writing that is a commentary of the times. Just that sometimes it gets disturbingly up close.
With an origin that goes back to 1889 as the college magazine of Cambridge University, Granta today has morphed into a much-coveted platform for short story writers and photographers to showcase their work. A quarterly magazine in the shape of a book, it has, over the years, brought acclaim to its dozen and some writers.
It?s called the ?Magazine of New Writing?, so you could mistakenly think it is about stylised prose, and exploring the aesthetics of putting words together. Yes, that it does have in large measure. But apart from stringing sentences along at the cutting edge, Granta offers a lot more. It?s about writers who have gone out and seen or experienced things in the ?real world?. It?s about the amazing, the alarming as also the everyday.
Diana Athill at a nifty ninety opens this latest edition with ?Somewhere Towards The End?. A sworn single, she details her love life over the decades, sometimes with bachelors sometimes with married men, and the changing colours of her romances. Searingly honest and analytical, her story sets the pace for the rest of the magazine.
So in ?On Monday Last Week? by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie there is the promise of a much-fantasised lesbian relationship for Kamara but there is no climax as she gets passed over. There is a picture essay by Martin Parr of a townscape that captures moments of ordinary life somewhere in Glasgow. Then there is a narrative on a don?t-care-a-damn loneliness and dejection by Thomas Lynch called ?Hunter?s Moon?. It made for interesting reading except for the occasional discounting of the long descriptive passages that somehow seem a trifle unnecessary.
There are other pieces by award-winning authors, but there isn?t a common theme that runs through this collection. In fact, what is special is the diversity of subjects. Yes, the emphasis is on human relationships or its absence, but each one of the stories has a quirky, insightful and engaging style of being told. Let?s see how the next Granta rolls out, what with Ian Jack, its editor, hanging up his boots after being at the helm of affairs for 12 years.