Short Story Review: “My Camp” by Joshua Cohen

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Matthew Groff

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(The short story “My Camp” by Joshua Cohen appeared in the October 21st, 2024 issue of The New Yorker.)

Photograph by Naila Ruechel for The New Yorker

So… What to make of “My Camp?” I guess I could say that Joshua Cohen wrote a story that I had no idea where it was going. That was refreshing. After that, I’m not sure what to think. I know I didn’t hate this story. It was a bit long; it did go on, and could have used some trimming. But, I’m just not sure…

It started out well; lulled me into thinking this was going to be a comedic take on upstate home ownership. Then, Cohen threw a curveball, which had the story move in an altogether different direction, only to come back to the camp at the end. I’m not even sure the narrator learned or changed an any way, which normally would cause me to pan the story, but in this piece, that might have been the point?

What I identified with was the narrator’s frustration with there not being a middle ground when it comes to October 7th, and the Gaza war. How people want the narrator to take a side, and the more pressure that is put on him, the more he digs in to not take a side. How if everyone is blindly going in one direction, you should go the opposite way. That resonated, especially in light of current events in the Mid-East.

But I still couldn’t tell if this piece was satire, a pointed take on conviction in light of what is happening, or was this just supposed to be a joke? I would hate to think that I am clutching my pearls here, thinking it’s too soon to even remotely make any artistic comment on Gaza, as I believe one of the main reason to have art is to comment on difficult issues. Yet, wasn’t this just a story about a guy that got comfortable with scamming people so he could own a home?

There isn’t a clear easy answer to this story, which I feel was Cohen’s point. Were people really trying to help? Does throwing money at a problem fix anything? Is greed inevitable? Is there no safety in the world and you have to take it when you get it? I could go on and on with all the questions this story brought up in me, and perhaps I should read it again. Though I don’t think that will help me find any answers. Anyway, maybe that’s just human nature – looking for answers.

I’m open to hearing what other people think on this one. Drop a comment, let me know what you think about this story.

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4 responses to “Short Story Review: “My Camp” by Joshua Cohen”

  1. Avatar
    Anonymous

    I found the story to ultimately be an illustration of trickery, showing the narrator’s identification with his internalized Jewish self-hatred. The narrator tricks the reader into believing they are on the side of Israel, and then switches to the opposite side by saying they are on the Palestinian side, when in fact they are on their own side, as was Hitler, Stalin and as is Trump and all fascistic dictators. Perhaps the author is commenting on the ways in which anyone on any extremist side of anything is engaged in a narcissistic project, that only serves to provide themselves with a metaphorical bunker in the woods without doing anything particularly constructive for the world or anyone else. So perhaps the trickery is really an illustration of self-delusion that is employed in the service of thinking you know what the “right” way is when in fact taken to its extremism is actually only in the service of the self. I could not help feeling the story to be playing on antisemitic tropes such as that Jews are only for themselves, are tricksters and can’t be trusted. In this sense it seemed to betray a feeling of Jewish self hatred of the narrator, and while I’d like to offer poetic license, this particular form of it was hard to swallow.

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    1. Matthew Groff Avatar
      Matthew Groff

      You have a well thought out insight, and thank you for sharing it. I agree with you that I also felt Cohen was trying to make the point that any form of extremism boils down to a selfish, narcissistic exercise. This story is still kicking around in my head, leaving me felling unsettled on its meaning and theme. Again, thank you for taking the time to share.

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  2. Avatar
    Anonymous

    For me, the unsettled feeling stems from the antisemitic tropes employed to make the point about how extremism is destructive and self-referential. What’s also unsettling is the feeling of no resolution, and the apparent shallowness of the narrator, who has no moral core with his trickery, both-sides-ism and his selfishness, which represents so much of what is happening in the world right now, at least as portrayed by the media for their own selfish purposes.

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    1. Matthew Groff Avatar
      Matthew Groff

      Hey, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on the story.

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