June 9 & 16, 2014 Issue

I skimmed the stories in this week’s “Summer Fiction” issue. Nothing grabbed me. I readily admit that I’m biased in favor of factual writing. Fiction’s photoshopped renditions of reality turn me off. But there’s always something in each issue to appreciate. This week, I found it in Emma Allen’s “Bar Tab” on Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden, the final sentence of which made me smile: “Finally, a patron was allowed to sample the Rhapsody. ‘It tastes like Busch Light,’ the drinker said, before tossing out another comparison, to a different liquid, of a similar hue.” Allen’s piece brought to mind an earlier New Yorker review of Bohemian Hall & Beer Garden – Nick Paumgarten’s great May 16, 2006, “Tables For Two,” which describes the place as “variegation meets fermentation,” and memorably concludes, “Maybe our graveyards should be beer gardens.”