<DIV><DIV>With a special section on Donald Barthelme, including remembrances from Ann Beattie, David Gates, and Oscar Hijuelos, and some of Barthelme's barely published and never-collected early work, and a highly theoretical but potentially amazing Z-binding that we can't describe very well here, or even to each other, <I>McSweeney's 24</I> will never be mistaken for anything else. (Except possibly the June 1978 issue of Popular Mechanics.)</DIV></DIV>