iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Reposted by Orange County Review of Books

David Collard @davidcollard.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

"... extraordinary, a toweringly ambitious novel that, despite its flaws, restores its readers’ faith in the messy business of literature that strives to last'. Among the most incisive reviews I've read. I'm delighted he likes least the parts I like most. His 'flaws' are my 'defining qualities'!

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Reposted by Orange County Review of Books

Guillermo Stitch @guillermostitch.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

This is a very thoughtful and thumpingly supportive review from Eric Bies at The Metropolitan Review. The parts Eric liked least are the parts a number of others have liked most . . . if there's one thing my work doesn't engender, it's consensus. #booksky www.metropolitanreview.org/p/beauty-ter...

metropolitanreview.org

Beauty, Terror, and Towering Ambition

On Guillermo Stitch’s ‘The Coast of Everything’

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 06/10/2026

New review of @guillermostitch.bsky.social’s THE COAST OF EVERYTHING, by OCRB founding editor Eric Bies, up at The Metropolitan Review today. @saggingmeniscus.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/metropol...

open.substack.com

Beauty, Terror, and Towering Ambition

On Guillermo Stitch’s ‘The Coast of Everything’

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

“Basho’s own use of ‘oku’ (奥), the ‘inner part’ of something, employs a delightful double meaning: the physical journey northward, outward, also folds inward.” Eric Bies reviews a new translation of Basho’s NARROW ROAD OF OKU from @ndbooks.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2026/10/05/b...

ocreviewofbooks.org

The Narrow Road of Oku by Basho

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

“Before becoming one of the world’s most renowned novelists … Murakami largely kept his family history behind closed doors; here, he finally lets us in.” David Heck reviews ABANDONING A CAT, the new memoir by Haruki Murakami, from @aaknopf.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.org/2026/09/28/a...

ocreviewofbooks.org

Abandoning a Cat by Haruki Murakami

Reviewed by David Heck

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

“Both stories are … stuffed full of half truths and misremembered events that manage, despite their flights of invention, to tell the larger story of who Ralph Cusack was.” Matt Martinson reviews 2 books by Ralph Cusack from @dalkeyarchive.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/cadenza-an...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Cadenza and A Hyphenated Childhood by Ralph Cusack

Reviewed by Matt Martinson

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 19/09/2026

Out now from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social – Benedetta Craveri’s LA CONTESSA. Read Eric Byrd’s review of the book: ocreviewofbooks.org/2026/08/25/t...

ocreviewofbooks.org

The Contessa by Benedetta Craveri

Reviewed by Eric Byrd

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

“Buckley Smith writes best when he lets rhyme slip away a bit, and allows the form to loosen.” Hilary Menos reviews Matthew Buckley Smith’s award-winning chapbook, THE SOFT BLACK STARS from @rattlepoetry.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/the-soft-b...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

The Soft Black Stars by Matthew Buckley Smith

Reviewed by Hilary Menos

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

In his translation of Osip Mandelstam’s debut, STONE, Robert Tracy has produced “a sequence of poems that are as crisply, lucidly musical as they are memorable.” Eric Bies reviews the book, recently reissued in paperbk by @princetonupress.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/stone-by-o...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Stone by Osip Mandelstam

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

“A seam of memorable statements runs through this book, and Voloshin mines it with gusto.” Eric Bies reviews Alexander Voloshin’s SIDETRACKED: EXILE IN HOLLYWOOD, recently rescued via @bdralyuk.bsky.social’s translation. @pauldrybooks.bsky.social ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/sidetracke...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Sidetracked: Exile in Hollywood by Alexander Voloshin

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Reposted by Orange County Review of Books

somanybooks24.bsky.social @somanybooks24.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

“As things stand, English readers have probably never been better situated to enjoy Petrarch’s poems.” In @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social, Eric Bies reviews A. M. Juster’s new translation of Petrarch’s “Canzoniere” - ocreviewofbooks.org/2026/09/05/c...

ocreviewofbooks.org

Canzoniere by Petrarch

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 06/09/2026

“It’s hard to imagine a better, more vital, more vividly realized new edition of this landmark work.” Eric Bies reviews A.M. Juster’s new translation of Petrarch’s CANZONIERE from @liveright.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/canzoniere...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Canzoniere by Petrarch

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 05/09/2026

"No single translator before Juster has managed to retain the dazzling range of rhyme, music, meter, and wordplay present in the original poems." Eric Bies reviews A.M. Juster's new translation of Petrarch's Canzoniere. @liveright.bsky.social ocreviewofbooks.org/2026/09/05/c...

ocreviewofbooks.org

Canzoniere by Petrarch

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

“At its core, the [title] essay is a lament for what Tanizaki calls ‘the losses we have suffered from borrowing.‘” Read David Heck’s review of the new translation of IN PRAISE OF SHADOWS from @tuttlepublishing.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/in-praise-...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

In Praise of Shadows and Other Essays by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki

Reviewed by David Heck

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

“In Sato's expert translation, Hanshan's poems are modern: they obliterate the lurking notion that the people of the remote past differed much at all from the people of the present.” Eric Bies reviews COLD MOUNTAIN ZEN from @ndbooks.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/cold-mount...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Cold Mountain Zen by Hanshan

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

“TRANSCRIPTION succeeds because it dares, within notably narrow confines, to go places typically reserved for much longer novels, if not other, more abstract art forms entirely.” Eric Bies reviews Ben Lerner‘s new novel from @fsgbooks.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/transcript...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Transcription by Ben Lerner

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

“It’s the Gilgamesh that only Armitage could write, one that blends a genuine respect for the scholarship … with the same poetic instinct that has made him one of our contemporary masters.” Eric Bies reviews Armitage’s latest. @liveright.bsky.social ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/gilgamesh-...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Gilgamesh: A New Verse Translation by Simon Armitage

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

“Guyotat’s memoir of runaway youth and military servitude is a nod to Shakespeare and Faulkner” – “an orphic scream from the ranks in step.” Eric Byrd reviews IDIOCY from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/idiocy-by-...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Idiocy by Pierre Guyotat

Reviewed by Eric Byrd

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

“RENAISSANCE is more than just a romp through its namesake. It’s a work of inspired ventriloquism and scholarly collation, a hopscotch of snapshots and confessions … world poetry at its perennial best.” Eric Bies reviews Haris Vlavianos’ US debut. ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/renaissanc...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Renaissance by Haris Vlavianos

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 26/08/2026

“If Iribarren carries calling cards, they’re the same gut-punch concision and world-weary insight that make his poems do double duty as aphorisms.” Eric Bies reviews poet Karmelo C. Iribarren’s English-language debut. @worldpoetrybooks.bsky.social ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/youve-hear...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

You've Heard This One Before by Karmelo C. Iribarren

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Reposted by Orange County Review of Books

New York Review Books @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

"In birth I equal them. In beauty I surpass them. In spirit I judge them." —The motto of Contessa di Castiglione, whose biography by Benedetta Craveri comes out soon. Great review in @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social

ocreviewofbooks.org

The Contessa by Benedetta Craveri

Reviewed by Eric Byrd

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

“I like that Benedetta Craveri’s new biography of the Contessa di Castiglione focuses on her political life and epistolary art, because her famous photographs are boring.” Eric Byrd reviews THE CONTESSA from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social. ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/the-contes...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

The Contessa by Benedetta Craveri

Reviewed by Eric Byrd

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

“More Gilbert-White-in-Selborne than busy-body-binocular-fumbler, the book’s best poems sound the kind of perfectly domestic note that can’t be faked by transplants.” Eric Bies reviews NEW CEMETERY by Simon Armitage. @aaknopf.bsky.social ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/new-cemete...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

New Cemetery by Simon Armitage

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

Chateaubriand “was always a poet – a particular kind of poet: wayfaring, exilic, unplaceable; sensitive to injustice, enchanted by contingent beauty, alive to every irony.” Eric Byrd reviews the third volume of his MEMOIRS @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/memoirs-fr...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Memoirs from Beyond the Grave: 1815–1830 by François-René de Chateaubriand

Reviewed by Eric Byrd

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 22/08/2026

“At more than 1,100 pages in length, Very Collected Poems is the proverbial kitchen sink … Real fans of poetry deserve such monuments.” Eric Bies reviews Ron Padgett’s VERY COLLECTED POEMS @coffeehousepress.bsky.social ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/very-colle...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Very Collected Poems by Ron Padgett

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

“Poetry, in Follain’s hands, is hardly the standard vehicle for introspection. Go looking for an “I” in these pages and you will be gone looking for some time.” Eric Bies reviews Jean Follain’s EARTHLY: SELECTED POEMS (@thesongcave.bsky.social). ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/earthly-by...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Earthly by Jean Follain

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

In the same way that Sei Shōnagon’s Pillow-Book baffles coordinates in spacetime, Abū Zayd’s Rain-Book reads like it could have been written yesterday, its author less a scholar than an accidental poet, which is to say a kind of lightning rod. ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/the-book-o...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

The Book of Rain by Abū Zayd Al-Anṣāri

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

“And in one of those grand cries of anticontemporaneity that I so love in her, Tsvetaeva accosts Stakhovich’s ghost and demands to know why he didn’t fall in love ‘with my Sonechka.’” Eric Byrd on Marina Tsvetaeva’s THE STORY OF SONECHKA. ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/the-story-...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

The Story of Sonechka by Marina Tsvetaeva

Reviewed by Eric Byrd

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

“The star of the show is the prose: elevated slightly, affected somewhat, generally influenced by literature in translation from a century ago but liable at times to lapse a little into contemporary colloquialisms.” Lee Klein on FRESH, GREEN LIFE. ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/fresh-gree...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Fresh, Green Life by Sebastian Castillo

Reviewed by Lee Klein

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

“Rather than asking readers to wade through centuries-old texts, Mikami distills the wisdom of Japan’s military leaders, philosophers, and strategists into bite-sized daily offerings.” David Heck reviews WISDOM OF THE SHOGUNS by Naoko Mikami. ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/wisdom-of-...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Wisdom of the Shoguns by Naoko Mikami

Reviewed by David Heck

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Fifty Poems is poetry-in-translation at its best. Nimble and inventive, Lehmann gives us the rare English Rilke worth preserving immediately. @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/fifty-poem...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Fifty Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

“PATCHWORK is precisely what it sounds like: a densely woven quilt of a book composed entirely of other author’s sentences.” Eric Bies reviews the book by @tomcomitta.bsky.social (from @coffeehousepress.bsky.social). ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/copy-termi...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Patchwork by Tom Comitta

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

“Like Gary Snyder if he could draw, McMillan’s artistry conveys an implicit philosophy of openness – to experience, nature, new ideas – that is equally refreshing and heartening.” Terminal Exposure: out now from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/copy-henry...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Terminal Exposure by Michael McMillan

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

HENRY JAMES COMES HOME “charts a journey, clarifies an itinerary, and identifies the encounters in which a writer’s later reflections are rooted.” Eric Byrd weighs in on Peter Brooks’ latest (from @nyrb-imprints.bsky.social). ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/henry-jame...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Henry James Comes Home by Peter Brooks

Reviewed by Eric Byrd

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

“The book centers on the mind-boggling fact that, though we do have a cure for tuberculosis, roughly 150 million people have died of the disease since the cure’s inception.” High school senior Claire Vaughan gives @johngreensbluesky.bsky.social his due. ocreviewofbooks.substack.com/p/everything...

ocreviewofbooks.substack.com

Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green

Reviewed by Claire Vaughan

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Hiroaki Sato’s fine translation of Hanshan’s Cold Mountain poems is out now from @ndbooks.bsky.social.

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

“Written as a modern murder mystery set in the sixteenth century, Perspective(s) is a breezy yet engrossing story of censorship, suspicion, and betrayal.” Claire Elliott on Binet’s latest. @fsgbooks.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/ocreview...

open.substack.com

Another Perspective on Binet's New Novel

Reviewed by Claire Elliott

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 11/08/2026

“…you’d never read one of her poems and think – apropos of the diction, the line breaks, the syntax, the tone – ‘I’m in an Ada Limón poem.’” Hugh Blanton reviews Limón’s new collection, STARTLEMENT (@milkweededitions.bsky.social). ocreviewofbooks.org/2026/08/11/s...

ocreviewofbooks.org

Startlement: New and Selected Poems by Ada Limón

Reviewed by Hugh Blanton

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

“By turns obsessive, cringing, and self-aggrandizing, the book’s key fascination is its capacity for tortured expression.“ On FLOWER by video artist Ed Atkins. open.substack.com/pub/ocreview...

open.substack.com

Flower by Ed Atkins

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 09/08/2026

“Serra’s fine book affirms that Malaparte in exile or in retreat does not write a masterpiece like Kaputt. And masterpieces are all that count.” — @ericdbyrd.bsky.social on Maurizo Serra’s biography of Curzio Malaparte (@nyrb-imprints.bsky.social) open.substack.com/pub/ocreview...

open.substack.com

Malaparte: A Biography by Maurizio Serra

Reviewed by Eric Byrd

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 08/08/2026

… the truth is that Latronico’s new book is less a novel than an ethnography, a somewhat tiresome case study in millennial ennui, a snapshot of a place in time sufficiently distant to prevail upon its author’s evident instinct for anthropology. #nyrb #perfection open.substack.com/pub/ocreview...

open.substack.com

Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

Laurent Binet’s new novel, Perspective(s), is a criss-crossing, polyphonic thing – a chatty, omnidirectional epistolary novel set against the politically turbulent backdrop of sixteenth-century Florence. @fsgbooks.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/ocreview...

open.substack.com

Perspective(s) by Laurent Binet

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 06/08/2026

“The book’s setup is gripping, and Balle’s straightforward prose reliably renders the oscillating tones and textures of a diary kept under such uncanny conditions.” A look back at vol. 1 of Solvej Balle’s On the Calculation of Volume. @ndbooks.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/ocreview...

open.substack.com

On the Calculation of Volume (Book I) by Solvej Balle

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

@elaineequi.bsky.social’s poems are for “everyone but misanthropes and snobs.” @coffeehousepress.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/ocreview...

open.substack.com

Out of the Blank by Elaine Equi

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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Reposted by Orange County Review of Books

Jeff Chon @jeffchon.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

I review of The Coast of Everything by @guillermostitch.bsky.social. Thanks to @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social for allowing me the space to do so.

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Catch @jeffchon.bsky.social’s excellent review (of @guillermostitch.bsky.social’s new novel) over at our brand spankin‘ new Substack. open.substack.com/pub/ocreview...

open.substack.com

The Coast of Everything by Guillermo Stitch

Reviewed by Jeff Chon

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Reposted by Orange County Review of Books

Sagging Meniscus @saggingmeniscus.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Here's @jeffchon.bsky.social on @guillermostitch.bsky.social: "Great writers constantly swim against the tide.... Once they reach a certain point ... the coast no longer looks small. It looks complete."

ocreviewofbooks.org

The Coast of Everything by Guillermo Stitch

Reviewed by Jeff Chon

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Orange County Review of Books @ocreviewofbooks.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

@guillermostitch.bsky.social's big, new novel, THE COAST OF EVERYTHING, "is an ode to storytelling and a counterstrike against the shortened attention spans of our troubled times." @jeffchon.bsky.social gives the book its due (@saggingmeniscus.bsky.social). ocreviewofbooks.org/2026/08/04/t...

ocreviewofbooks.org

The Coast of Everything by Guillermo Stitch

Reviewed by Eric Bies

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