---
product_id: 45474321
title: "McSweeney's Issue 40 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern) Paperback – May 15, 2012"
brand: "dave eggers"
price: "A$37"
currency: AUD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 6
url: https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/45474321-mcsweeneys-issue-40-mcsweeneys-quarterly-concern-paperback-may-15-2012
store_origin: AU
region: Australia
---

# McSweeney's Issue 40 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern) Paperback – May 15, 2012

**Brand:** dave eggers
**Price:** A$37
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** McSweeney's Issue 40 (McSweeney's Quarterly Concern) Paperback – May 15, 2012 by dave eggers
- **How much does it cost?** A$37 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.com.au](https://www.desertcart.com.au/products/45474321-mcsweeneys-issue-40-mcsweeneys-quarterly-concern-paperback-may-15-2012)

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- dave eggers enthusiasts

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## Description

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## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    great quarterly magazine/book
  

*by J***E on Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2012*

this is my first McSweeney, so i can't compare it to the other issues.  that said, i love this magazine!  it's more of a compilation of great literary / fiction works than a magazine.  i specifically bought this for Neil Gaiman's contribution.  it's excellent, as Mr. Gaiman always is.  i've flipped through and read some of the other pieces and they're all equally intriguing.  Issue 40 also comes with a full length book about Rwanda.  i haven't read it yet, but it starts off well and is very engaging.if you like short stories, this is a great magazine.  i will definitely be buying more McSweeneys!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    The Matryoshka Doll of Magazines
  

*by D***S on Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2012*

Approaching my first read of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, I had certain assumptions, namely these: that McSweeney's incorporated into a single magazine a number of humorous and whimsical narratives depicting a predominantly West Coast U.S. lifestyle and epitomized the acme of contemporary writing. All except the last of these assumptions I have seriously revised after my encounter.It isn't so much a magazine. They should warn you of that. It's way more like a Matryoshka doll--the Russian nesting doll--that keeps opening up and you find books, full propositions. It moves you. It challenges your perspective of the human condition. It moves you across the U.S. and overseas to "Third World" countries. The writing excels but in a way that's much more than just the "Wow! That's such a creative and amusing story that titillated me senseless" way that you shrug off and move on throughout your life. It nags at you even afterward when you lay it down and think of moving on.Hmm, maybe that's why they don't warn you and, instead, pass it out under the auspices of a harmless smattering of whimsical narrative.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 







  
  
    Nonfiction is great. Fiction flops.
  

*by M***N on Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2012*

Firstly, Issue #40 is wonderfully produced. The Quarterly is a nice paperback somewhere between mass-market and trade, in size, bundled with a hardback of Rick Bass's "In My Home There Is No More Sorrow: Ten Days in Rwanda" by means of a paper strip. Both books are elegantly crafted, the quarterly including a comic insert (lackluster).As for the red meat, recent issues have been a mixed bag of somewhat-interesting nonfiction and the occasional fiction piece that actually stimulates the nerve endings. This issue straddles the wide seam separating excellent non-fiction from derivative fiction (the letters section has become an exercise of cranking out variations on a once-interesting theme). Aside from the witty Neil Gaiman piece "Adventure Story," the fiction can be bypassed without any lingering guilt, if the first couple pages of each story doesn't warrant further attention. The non-fiction--"Notes From a Bystander," by Saïd Sayrafiezadeh, and the collected selections for "I Am Going Down on January 25: Writing from the Egyptian Revolution"--saves this issue from a negative rating. Each of the three anchoring pieces (now including Bass's long essay) provides a wildly divergent perspective of its respective major political incident that forces readers to reexamine the variant shades of well-publicized events: Occupy Wall Street, Uprising in Egypt, Genocide in Rwanda.Sayrafiezadeh filters his experience with the Occupy movement through his relationship with his politically-active parents. The selections on the Egyptian Revolution provide a nuanced view of the evolving zeitgeist that spanned from the early `90s to 2011, including reproductions of how-to-dress for revolution flyers, an excerpt from Mubarak's speech to the Egyptian people, op-eds, and first-hand accounts of the incident.Bass really saves the issue, providing a wonderful account of his trip to Rwanda to participate in a writing workshop for students at the National University of Rwanda. The descriptions of Bass's response to the memorials littered throughout the recovering nation subvert the countryside's natural beauty, the immense potential trapped in untapped resources and stifled entrepreneurship. He struggles to manage his own guilt as a bystander during the 1994 genocide (the U.S. could've intervened, but disastrous intervention in Somalia dissuaded the Clinton Administration) in the face of people who are living happily, not fulfilling his expectation of a hoard of moping survivors still lost in the wake of near-annihilation. This dynamic sustains the narrative, despite Bass's penchant for purple-y prose and quasi-romantic flourishes. The blemishes are easily glossed over, however, and the beautifully tragic cadences make up for repetitive elements.Overall, the issue is worth reading. Adam Levin and Kevin Moffett flopped; the rest of the fiction left no impression. I didn't get the point. Maybe I'm not cool enough to appreciate this issue's fiction. Maybe the fiction was simply dull.

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*Store origin: AU*
*Last updated: 2026-02-02*