McSweeney's Issue 20

Every fourth page is a full-color figurative painting, each one by an excellent artist. The other pages have fiction on them, with only one color but lots of words including punched, pants, and Puerto ? that's actually just the first page. After that, there are stories exploring animal-plant romances, psycho librarians, and passive-agressive ventriloquism. No fewer than two dictators appear as protagonists. And after all that, loosely glued to the inside back cover, there5;s a fifty-page booklet containing a harrowing excerpt from Chris Adrian5;s The Children5;s Hospital..

This is a handsome, handsome issue, brimming with fulfilling things.