This was published in 2005, but I apparently bought this in 2013 — at The Strand! I think this was after I stopped my subscription to the magazine, but apparently this format was irresistible to me.
As it is to this day. Some of the “mail” in this package is just bizarre fun, like this flyer for sown-together clothes.
They really commit to the gag — all the stuff is mail addressed to Maria Vasquez.
And one of the best pieces here is this “letter” by Peter Ferry, which turns out to be an excerpt from a novel that was published in 2009, and I’ve now bought it because the excerpt is really intriguing.
(That’s the problem with reading — you end up buying more stuff.)
Most of the pieces are in a literary magazine that Vasquez subscribes to, “Unfamiliar, A Twice-Monthly Magazine of Literary Fiction”. Which feels like cheating, but whatevs.
And man, 2005 was a different era. Do you remember the human shields who went to Iraq to try to stop Americans from bombing infrastructure? I’d forgotten.
The best thing in “Unfamiliar” is “The Sno-Cone Cart” by Rebecca Curtis, who has only released one short story collection, apparently.
Anyway, all the text pieces are much stronger than I remembered McSweeney’s having… perhaps I misremember why I stopped reading it? Hm. I should sample another of the (several) unread issues I have here (most of which are published in more traditional formats).
McSweeney’s #17 (2005) edited by Dave Eggers (buy new, buy used, 3.71 on Goodreads)