Review of Contemporary Fiction: XVI, #1

Book excerpt: The Review's aesthetic focus has been called many things--postmodern, experimental, avant-garde, metafictional, subversive--but in bringing this aesthetic to a wider audience it also seeks to expose the artificial barriers that exist between and within cultures. To this end, The Review has a special affinity for the works of foreign writers who may otherwise go unread in the United States, as well as American writers whose work has gone unchampioned in their own country. An extensive book review section also covers recent works of innovative writing. Above all, The Review of Contemporary Fiction attempts to expand readers' notions of what fiction is and what it can do.