A more recent review
Fire Poems. opens with the author awakened from a pleasant dream to a crashing burning home, from which he and his wife escape through a window. The glass has melted and cracked away to create the portal for their getaway and rebirth. The cleansing fire burns away a dead starling trapped in a window screen. Through the entire book, the beat of Finn's Djembe drum resonates, the goat skin head cracked and burned away, the hollow body shooting flame. Perhaps the most poignant of all images appears in the short poem “Silence of Ashes,” in which a Plum Wood Flute, now gone, was once a blossoming twig, once a source of music and joy. A copy of his previous book, “Rites of the Earth,” escapes with charred pages. From these bits and pieces they reconstruct their lives. Fire Poems is a must read for all who have survived tragedy, and for those yet to do so.
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Showing posts with label book review. Show all posts
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Fire Poems
Fire Poems
Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
Fire is a destroyer and a cleanser. It is a force of nature from which we warm ourselves, cook our food, and flee in terror when it is beyond our control. All of these elements appear in Finn Bille's soon to be released collection, Fire Poems.
The book opens with the author awakened from a pleasant dream to a crashing burning home, from which he and his wife escape through a window. The glass has melted and cracked away to create the portal for their escape and rebirth. The cleansing fire burns away a dead starling, trapped in a window screen.
Through the entire book, the beat of Finn's Djembe drum resonates, the goat skin head cracked and burned way, the hollow body shooting flame. Perhaps the most poignant of all images appears in the short poem ashes, in which a Plum Wood Flute, now gone, was once a blossoming twig, once a source of music and joy.
As the flames continue their rampage, furniture, paintings, musical instruments, and household icons alike fall victim to the destruction. A favorite coffee mug escapes only cracked, and a window is reformed for their new home. A copy of his previous book, “Rites of the Earth,” escapes with charred pages. From these bits and pieces they reconstruct their lives.
Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
Fire is a destroyer and a cleanser. It is a force of nature from which we warm ourselves, cook our food, and flee in terror when it is beyond our control. All of these elements appear in Finn Bille's soon to be released collection, Fire Poems.
The book opens with the author awakened from a pleasant dream to a crashing burning home, from which he and his wife escape through a window. The glass has melted and cracked away to create the portal for their escape and rebirth. The cleansing fire burns away a dead starling, trapped in a window screen.
Through the entire book, the beat of Finn's Djembe drum resonates, the goat skin head cracked and burned way, the hollow body shooting flame. Perhaps the most poignant of all images appears in the short poem ashes, in which a Plum Wood Flute, now gone, was once a blossoming twig, once a source of music and joy.
As the flames continue their rampage, furniture, paintings, musical instruments, and household icons alike fall victim to the destruction. A favorite coffee mug escapes only cracked, and a window is reformed for their new home. A copy of his previous book, “Rites of the Earth,” escapes with charred pages. From these bits and pieces they reconstruct their lives.
Northbound Single Lane
Northbound Single Lane
Marsha Mathews
Mathews explores, with two children in tow, the wonders of a museum, an Appalachian trail, a garden plot in her new home and her first view of snow. Add to these stories a few more with themes of pregnancy, childbirth, motherhood, falling in love, divorce, and single parenting. Mathews provides a tightly woven work which scales the heights of human experience and emotion.
For male readers, many of the topics in Northbound Single Lane are terra incognita, so the first poem to strike a resonant chord for me was”Death Pulls me South.” This poem is the author's tale of her travel to her dad's funeral. It called to mind my own fathers death, at 92, and his graveside service, complete with bugle and twenty-one gun salute. The visitation she describes is quite different, but loss and mourning are universal, and her words bring the point home with eloquence and sad beauty.
Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman, Executive Editor
Southern Light Press
Marsha Mathews
Mathews explores, with two children in tow, the wonders of a museum, an Appalachian trail, a garden plot in her new home and her first view of snow. Add to these stories a few more with themes of pregnancy, childbirth, motherhood, falling in love, divorce, and single parenting. Mathews provides a tightly woven work which scales the heights of human experience and emotion.
For male readers, many of the topics in Northbound Single Lane are terra incognita, so the first poem to strike a resonant chord for me was”Death Pulls me South.” This poem is the author's tale of her travel to her dad's funeral. It called to mind my own fathers death, at 92, and his graveside service, complete with bugle and twenty-one gun salute. The visitation she describes is quite different, but loss and mourning are universal, and her words bring the point home with eloquence and sad beauty.
Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman, Executive Editor
Southern Light Press
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
5 Star Review
Carolyn Sieradzki, a former Chattanooga resident gave Southern Light a five star review on Amazon.com It is reprinted bewlow.
When I read poetry, I expect to hear music and see light, to sense cadence and color as well as to learn, even obliquely, something about the poet’s experience. I grew up in the South and I know whereof the poets whose poems appear in Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets speak. The music created by these poets, by their accents, by their well-chosen, well-placed words delights the ear. The quality of light, that Southern Light of the title, is the light that I remember from childhood, piercing and surrounding, sharp and mellow, illuminating external events that everyone experiences and internal realizations that only the individual suspects. From public history to personal pain they have left very little out, but one wants more. If you read only one book this summer, read Southern Light. It will take you to places you remember well and to places you have only imagined before.
Carolyn
When I read poetry, I expect to hear music and see light, to sense cadence and color as well as to learn, even obliquely, something about the poet’s experience. I grew up in the South and I know whereof the poets whose poems appear in Southern Light: Twelve Contemporary Southern Poets speak. The music created by these poets, by their accents, by their well-chosen, well-placed words delights the ear. The quality of light, that Southern Light of the title, is the light that I remember from childhood, piercing and surrounding, sharp and mellow, illuminating external events that everyone experiences and internal realizations that only the individual suspects. From public history to personal pain they have left very little out, but one wants more. If you read only one book this summer, read Southern Light. It will take you to places you remember well and to places you have only imagined before.
Carolyn
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The Shadow of Sirius
The Shadow of Sirius
W.S. Merwin
Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
Merwin completed this collection shortly before being named Poet Laureate of the United States. These hauntingly beautiful works reflect his lifelong concern for the natural world and use of stunning nature images. “The Curlew,” is a personal favorite of this reviewer:
When the moon has gone I fly on alone
into this night where I have never been....
The poems are evocative of the spirit Merwin manifested his earlier collection The Lice, and particularly the poem “For a Coming Extinction::”
Gray whale
Now that we are sending you to The End
That great god
Tell him
That we who follow you invented forgiveness
And forgive nothing
Get a copy of this book today.
W.S. Merwin
Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
Merwin completed this collection shortly before being named Poet Laureate of the United States. These hauntingly beautiful works reflect his lifelong concern for the natural world and use of stunning nature images. “The Curlew,” is a personal favorite of this reviewer:
When the moon has gone I fly on alone
into this night where I have never been....
The poems are evocative of the spirit Merwin manifested his earlier collection The Lice, and particularly the poem “For a Coming Extinction::”
Gray whale
Now that we are sending you to The End
That great god
Tell him
That we who follow you invented forgiveness
And forgive nothing
Get a copy of this book today.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Talismans
Talismans (Short Fiction Collection)
Sybil Baker
Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
Elise is disarmingly honest in her appraisal of the boys and men in her life. As heroine of this collection of linked short stories, she begins her narrative in kindergarten when she beats a boy in a race and doesn’t realize until years later why this victory fails to impress him. She is equally forthright in her commentary on the adult men who later appear as friends, companions, and lovers.
The one man who remains enigmatic is the father who returned from Vietnam to start a family with her mother and abandoned them the year after she was born. He seeks peace in another Asian country and dies of drowning before she enters school.
A grown Elise travels to Asia after the death of her mother who seemed as distant as the deceased father. As a teacher and then a casual tourist she is determined to find clues to her father’s life and motivation. A powerful ending reveals how both parents have shaped her psyche through their absence, perhaps with greater impact than presence could have allowed. A must read.
Sybil Baker
Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
Elise is disarmingly honest in her appraisal of the boys and men in her life. As heroine of this collection of linked short stories, she begins her narrative in kindergarten when she beats a boy in a race and doesn’t realize until years later why this victory fails to impress him. She is equally forthright in her commentary on the adult men who later appear as friends, companions, and lovers.
The one man who remains enigmatic is the father who returned from Vietnam to start a family with her mother and abandoned them the year after she was born. He seeks peace in another Asian country and dies of drowning before she enters school.
A grown Elise travels to Asia after the death of her mother who seemed as distant as the deceased father. As a teacher and then a casual tourist she is determined to find clues to her father’s life and motivation. A powerful ending reveals how both parents have shaped her psyche through their absence, perhaps with greater impact than presence could have allowed. A must read.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
The Writing Life
The Writing Life
Annie Dillard
ISBN 978-0-06-091988-7
Edit mercilessly. Annie Dillard makes this point early in her short book of advice. Comparing the construction of a book to that of a house, she points out that the portion you must cut may have been the point of the whole story, the wall that must go may be a load bearing wall. All the writer can do is take out her hammer, knock out the wall, and duck.
Dillard makes other important points, such as avoid interesting work places. They will distract you from the work.
In an odd interlude near the middle of the book, a typewriter erupts like a volcano. That metaphor may well be the whole point of her book.
If you want to write, buy this book. Read it again and again.
Annie Dillard
ISBN 978-0-06-091988-7
Edit mercilessly. Annie Dillard makes this point early in her short book of advice. Comparing the construction of a book to that of a house, she points out that the portion you must cut may have been the point of the whole story, the wall that must go may be a load bearing wall. All the writer can do is take out her hammer, knock out the wall, and duck.
Dillard makes other important points, such as avoid interesting work places. They will distract you from the work.
In an odd interlude near the middle of the book, a typewriter erupts like a volcano. That metaphor may well be the whole point of her book.
If you want to write, buy this book. Read it again and again.
Monday, November 15, 2010
The Magic Bridge
The Magic Bridge
Herbert Barks
ISBN 1-884327-05-3
Anyone contemplating a new venture or facing life changing circumstances should read this book. The author had served as headmaster of a private school for 17 years when he faced a major illness. As an ordained minister he had served three congregations and attended the sick and dying. He was present at the death of beloved colleague.
As he faced each crisis, he realized the truth in the words of a former student and valued friend, “Your teacher has arrived.” From this simple phrase, he gathered strength to face, and learn from, adversity. He also emphasizes wilderness as a sanctuary and teacher.
Throughout the book, Barks weaves the Russian folk tale of the Firebird. A character known only as the Hunter finds a feather from this magnificent bird. The find sets him on a series of quests which cause him to learn his ultimate destiny, a destiny greater than he imagined.
Herbert Barks
ISBN 1-884327-05-3
Anyone contemplating a new venture or facing life changing circumstances should read this book. The author had served as headmaster of a private school for 17 years when he faced a major illness. As an ordained minister he had served three congregations and attended the sick and dying. He was present at the death of beloved colleague.
As he faced each crisis, he realized the truth in the words of a former student and valued friend, “Your teacher has arrived.” From this simple phrase, he gathered strength to face, and learn from, adversity. He also emphasizes wilderness as a sanctuary and teacher.
Throughout the book, Barks weaves the Russian folk tale of the Firebird. A character known only as the Hunter finds a feather from this magnificent bird. The find sets him on a series of quests which cause him to learn his ultimate destiny, a destiny greater than he imagined.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Early Winter
Early Winter
Bill Brown
He is sixteen years old when his father dies in his arms. His brother returns from Vietnam, but a close friend does not. Young neighbors serve in Iraq. Villagers rebuild after a bombing. He is surprised to find his grandmother’s portrait hanging on the wall of a Cracker Barrel, next to old time memorabilia. A neighbor tells of a cave with ancient burials, but no one is able to find it.
These are but a few of the characters inhabiting Bill Brown’s book, Late Winter. Add the quiet beauty of the Tennessee hills and you understand why Brown is an acclaimed poet, why he has five books to his credit. Read this book immediately.
Bill Brown
He is sixteen years old when his father dies in his arms. His brother returns from Vietnam, but a close friend does not. Young neighbors serve in Iraq. Villagers rebuild after a bombing. He is surprised to find his grandmother’s portrait hanging on the wall of a Cracker Barrel, next to old time memorabilia. A neighbor tells of a cave with ancient burials, but no one is able to find it.
These are but a few of the characters inhabiting Bill Brown’s book, Late Winter. Add the quiet beauty of the Tennessee hills and you understand why Brown is an acclaimed poet, why he has five books to his credit. Read this book immediately.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Ballistics
Ballistics
Billy Collins
The title poem sets the tone for this latest contribution from the former Poet Laureate of the United States. Collins speculates as to what book may have been the victim in Edgerton’s famous stop action photograph. We see the bullet piercing the cover of a book, but the title is not discernable. Typical of his often used dry humor, his list of possible volumes seems to be a suggestion of various books he would not miss, would suggest sacrificing.
Collins concludes that the book in the picture must be a work of poems, a book by a fellow poet of whom he is not fond. He imagines the bullet piercing the author’s photograph adorned with that “…special poet’s hat he loves to wear.”
Collins writes poetry that is, above all, accessible. He is perhaps unique in having achieved commercial success as a contemporary poet. If you have friends who believe they don’t like poetry, have them try reading Billy Collins. His work could be a gateway for them.
Billy Collins
The title poem sets the tone for this latest contribution from the former Poet Laureate of the United States. Collins speculates as to what book may have been the victim in Edgerton’s famous stop action photograph. We see the bullet piercing the cover of a book, but the title is not discernable. Typical of his often used dry humor, his list of possible volumes seems to be a suggestion of various books he would not miss, would suggest sacrificing.
Collins concludes that the book in the picture must be a work of poems, a book by a fellow poet of whom he is not fond. He imagines the bullet piercing the author’s photograph adorned with that “…special poet’s hat he loves to wear.”
Collins writes poetry that is, above all, accessible. He is perhaps unique in having achieved commercial success as a contemporary poet. If you have friends who believe they don’t like poetry, have them try reading Billy Collins. His work could be a gateway for them.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
The Armchair Birder
As previously appeared in "The New Writer"
The Armchair Birder:
Discovering the Secret Lives of Birds
John Yow
ISBN 978-0-8078-3279-0
Very occasionally, I read a book, or a passage from a book and say, “I wish I had written that.” The Armchair Birder by John Yow is such a book.
Mr. Yow is a skilled observer. He filled his book with first hand accounts of his observations of 40 common birds observed at his home in rural Georgia or on short trips away from home. Woven into this framework of observation are narratives from famous North American bird observers such as John James Audubon and Arthur Cleveland Bent. These accounts echo his own observations, complimented by reproductions of Audubon’s classic illustrations.
There is one thing his book is not. It is not a guide to bird identification. Yow picked 40 birds easily identified and took the study much further by examining the lives, behavior, and folklore of each species. The Armchair Birder is a delightful read which will motivate readers to further their own investigations.
Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
http://znaturalist.blogspot.com
The Armchair Birder:
Discovering the Secret Lives of Birds
John Yow
ISBN 978-0-8078-3279-0
Very occasionally, I read a book, or a passage from a book and say, “I wish I had written that.” The Armchair Birder by John Yow is such a book.
Mr. Yow is a skilled observer. He filled his book with first hand accounts of his observations of 40 common birds observed at his home in rural Georgia or on short trips away from home. Woven into this framework of observation are narratives from famous North American bird observers such as John James Audubon and Arthur Cleveland Bent. These accounts echo his own observations, complimented by reproductions of Audubon’s classic illustrations.
There is one thing his book is not. It is not a guide to bird identification. Yow picked 40 birds easily identified and took the study much further by examining the lives, behavior, and folklore of each species. The Armchair Birder is a delightful read which will motivate readers to further their own investigations.
Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
http://znaturalist.blogspot.com
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Desert Notes
"The land does not give easily. The desert is like a boulder: you expect to wait. You expect night to come. But you expect some-time it will loosen into pieces to be examined." - Desert Notes, Barry Lopez
Later the author goes on to say:
"Your confidence in these finely etched maps is understandable, for at first glance they seem excellent, the best man is capable of; but your confidence is misplaced. Throw them out. They are the wrong sort of map. They are too thin. They are not the sort of map that can be followed by a man who knows what he is doing. The coyote, even the crow would regard them with suspicion."
Read this years ago, and recently re-read it. Desert Notes and the companion volumes River Notes and Field Notes are the work of a master craftsman.
Later the author goes on to say:
"Your confidence in these finely etched maps is understandable, for at first glance they seem excellent, the best man is capable of; but your confidence is misplaced. Throw them out. They are the wrong sort of map. They are too thin. They are not the sort of map that can be followed by a man who knows what he is doing. The coyote, even the crow would regard them with suspicion."
Read this years ago, and recently re-read it. Desert Notes and the companion volumes River Notes and Field Notes are the work of a master craftsman.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Book Review
This one from Carolyn Sieradzki of Silver Spring, Maryland.
Consider This, Señora Harcourt Brace & Company
Harriet Doerr 15 East 26th Street
New York, NY 10010
Copyright 1993
ISBN: Q-15-193103-8 Reviewed: November 30, 2009
To continue with the simile first used by my mother-in-law, this book also does not taste like milk. It tastes like a banana. After one has read the jacket notes, one opens the peel with anticipation brought on by color and hints of bruising, secrets within the protective covering, and certainty of the varieties of smell, taste and texture, even threads that remind one of mysterious permanence.
Immediately after the peel is drawn down like a woman’s nightgown, a burst of scent erupts like an upward spray of mist. But it is not an olfactory image. It is the introduction of three of the characters, described with the precision of eruption. Essential details about their lives and their personalities crowd into the reader’s mind in a flurry. Those details will not be forgotten, nor will the details of the deal the three strike; they lay the foundation for all that follows.
The jacket notes say that Consider This, Señora is the story of the lives and internal discoveries of the Americans who have come to a Mexican mesa. The novel equally captures life and discovery among the Mexicans who live in the town below. Their lives reflect and intersect with those of the Americans.
As the reader unfolds the outer story of the book, the effects of the bruises emerge: some are learned from experience, some consumed without gain, and some even set aside without consideration or expression. The very existence of secrets – as in life everywhere – complicates and somehow comforts every interaction. The secrets are memories; present events known only to the participants; dreams for the future; wisdom known but unspoken. No one is without them.
The ever-present thread, like that found between the peel and the flesh of the banana, is the coming and going of the rainy season and – when the rain is gone for long periods – the desperate need for water and the failure of authority to heed pleas for help. It is that often annoying remnant of our primal selves that we all experience, dependent on something outside ourselves that we cannot control and for the failure of which there is no help.
One of the inhabitants on the mesa, a musician, brings a piano and, for months, plays only a single note, like the taste of the banana as we hurry to consume it on our way to work. But just as the first rain brings needed water for the crops and for the household, music – in every form from sonata to opera, from fugue to rhapsody – simultaneously begins to pour forth from the piano. This music becomes the source and symbol of renewal. It brings with it discovery of the diverse flavors of the banana – the colors found in overt descriptions of materials, flowers and scenery, as well as in the dimensions of the characters’ fruitful inner lives. Finally, each of the Americans finds that which they sought.
A friend loaned Consider This, Señora to me in a bag of books I “really should read,” without saying a word about it; I was completely surprised to find it so delightful. It is not a “heavy read.” One could easily sit and read it straight through because it is not only an effortless read, it is very engaging. You want to know what happens next, and you would rather not wait until tomorrow to find out.
Harriet Doerr entered the community of authors as a relatively older woman. She has received numerous honors and awards, including the American Book Award in 1984 for her novel, Stones for Ibarra.
Consider This, Señora Harcourt Brace & Company
Harriet Doerr 15 East 26th Street
New York, NY 10010
Copyright 1993
ISBN: Q-15-193103-8 Reviewed: November 30, 2009
To continue with the simile first used by my mother-in-law, this book also does not taste like milk. It tastes like a banana. After one has read the jacket notes, one opens the peel with anticipation brought on by color and hints of bruising, secrets within the protective covering, and certainty of the varieties of smell, taste and texture, even threads that remind one of mysterious permanence.
Immediately after the peel is drawn down like a woman’s nightgown, a burst of scent erupts like an upward spray of mist. But it is not an olfactory image. It is the introduction of three of the characters, described with the precision of eruption. Essential details about their lives and their personalities crowd into the reader’s mind in a flurry. Those details will not be forgotten, nor will the details of the deal the three strike; they lay the foundation for all that follows.
The jacket notes say that Consider This, Señora is the story of the lives and internal discoveries of the Americans who have come to a Mexican mesa. The novel equally captures life and discovery among the Mexicans who live in the town below. Their lives reflect and intersect with those of the Americans.
As the reader unfolds the outer story of the book, the effects of the bruises emerge: some are learned from experience, some consumed without gain, and some even set aside without consideration or expression. The very existence of secrets – as in life everywhere – complicates and somehow comforts every interaction. The secrets are memories; present events known only to the participants; dreams for the future; wisdom known but unspoken. No one is without them.
The ever-present thread, like that found between the peel and the flesh of the banana, is the coming and going of the rainy season and – when the rain is gone for long periods – the desperate need for water and the failure of authority to heed pleas for help. It is that often annoying remnant of our primal selves that we all experience, dependent on something outside ourselves that we cannot control and for the failure of which there is no help.
One of the inhabitants on the mesa, a musician, brings a piano and, for months, plays only a single note, like the taste of the banana as we hurry to consume it on our way to work. But just as the first rain brings needed water for the crops and for the household, music – in every form from sonata to opera, from fugue to rhapsody – simultaneously begins to pour forth from the piano. This music becomes the source and symbol of renewal. It brings with it discovery of the diverse flavors of the banana – the colors found in overt descriptions of materials, flowers and scenery, as well as in the dimensions of the characters’ fruitful inner lives. Finally, each of the Americans finds that which they sought.
A friend loaned Consider This, Señora to me in a bag of books I “really should read,” without saying a word about it; I was completely surprised to find it so delightful. It is not a “heavy read.” One could easily sit and read it straight through because it is not only an effortless read, it is very engaging. You want to know what happens next, and you would rather not wait until tomorrow to find out.
Harriet Doerr entered the community of authors as a relatively older woman. She has received numerous honors and awards, including the American Book Award in 1984 for her novel, Stones for Ibarra.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
mad to live
mad to live
In the brief volume, "mad to live," Randall Brown reveals his masterful story telling in eighteen flash fiction stories. For those of you not familiar with the genre, flash fiction stories are 1000 words or less, yet must be a complete story. Character development is minimized, with a focus on the story line.
Brown’s characters range from childhood to middle age, engage in the battles of day to day life, and live with dilemmas that never seem to quite reach a resolution. In one story, a boy and his grandfather escape from the attack of two hoodlums when the boy delivers a well aimed kick to the groin of one attacker and the grandfather recovers from a blow to the head long enough to find and use his shotgun stored behind the counter. As they exit the grandfather’s store, sirens wail in the distance.
Brown presented several of the stories in a highly entertaining reading at the recent Meacham Writers Conference here in Chattanooga.
The title is not capitalized and is drawn from Kerouac’s book, On the Road. With the decreasing attention span so obvious in American culture, flash fiction may well be the wave of the future.
mad to live: a collection of very short fiction
Randall Brown
Flume Press
ISBN 10:1-886226-13-5
ISBN 13:978-1-886226-13-5
In the brief volume, "mad to live," Randall Brown reveals his masterful story telling in eighteen flash fiction stories. For those of you not familiar with the genre, flash fiction stories are 1000 words or less, yet must be a complete story. Character development is minimized, with a focus on the story line.
Brown’s characters range from childhood to middle age, engage in the battles of day to day life, and live with dilemmas that never seem to quite reach a resolution. In one story, a boy and his grandfather escape from the attack of two hoodlums when the boy delivers a well aimed kick to the groin of one attacker and the grandfather recovers from a blow to the head long enough to find and use his shotgun stored behind the counter. As they exit the grandfather’s store, sirens wail in the distance.
Brown presented several of the stories in a highly entertaining reading at the recent Meacham Writers Conference here in Chattanooga.
The title is not capitalized and is drawn from Kerouac’s book, On the Road. With the decreasing attention span so obvious in American culture, flash fiction may well be the wave of the future.
mad to live: a collection of very short fiction
Randall Brown
Flume Press
ISBN 10:1-886226-13-5
ISBN 13:978-1-886226-13-5
Saturday, October 31, 2009
New Book
I meant to review KB Balletnine's new book by now, but some one borrowed my copy and has not returned it. Perhaps that is praise enough.
Fragments of Light
by K.B. Ballentine
Published by Celtic Cat Publishing
July 2009;
ISBN: 978-0-9819238-1-9
http://www.celticcatpublishing.com/fragments.htm
Fragments of Light
by K.B. Ballentine
Published by Celtic Cat Publishing
July 2009;
ISBN: 978-0-9819238-1-9
http://www.celticcatpublishing.com/fragments.htm
Saturday, October 10, 2009
book review
- Poachers by Tom Franklin
ISBN 0-688-16749-3
“…But I’ve never lost the need to tell of my Alabama , to reveal it, lush and green and full of death. So I return, knowing what I’ve learned. I come back where life is slow dying and I poach for stories. I poach because I want to recover the paths while there is still time, before the last logging trucks rumble through and the old dark ways are forever hewn.” (From the introduction)
Tell it, he does, with the power of one who knows the people and places first hand. The short story collection, Poachers, holds within its pages a host of characters that work in a chemical plant and a sewage treatment plant. One runs a mill that makes grist for sandblasting and one tends bar in a honky-tonk. The characters live lives of desperation as raw and jagged as a broken tooth. In the introduction to this unique book, Tom Franklin reveals a personal history that includes early years hunting deer and wild turkey in the land between the Tombigbee and the Alabama Rivers .
In the title novella “Poachers,” the reader meets the three Gates brothers, as wild and untamed as the creatures that they hunt for a living. When they kill a rookie lawman, the legendary and mysterious game warden, Frank David, comes out of retirement to track them down. Some people say that Frank David was an orphan boy raised by a Cajun woman on a bayou. Some say that he was a special services sniper in the Korean War. Others say that he is so good at catching poachers because he himself was once the best poacher in the state. All agree that he is a man of average build, able to catch any poacher that he tracks. When one of the Gates brothers dies, killed by dynamite in a “fishing accident,” the local sheriff begins to think that the legendary lawman has crossed the line.
The title novella was included in two anthologies, New Stories from the South, The Year’s Best, 1999, and Best American Mystery Stories, 1999. It is a splendid example of Tom Franklin’s masterful storytelling. The novella alone makes the book, Poachers, a must read.
- Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
Ray Zimmerman’s poem “Glen Falls Trail,” won second place in the Tennessee Writer’s Alliance 2007 poetry contest.
If you see a writer on fire, fan the flames.
znaturalist@yahoo.com
http://znaturalist.blogspot.com/
http://www.chattanoogawritersguild.org/zimmerman.shtml
ISBN 0-688-16749-3
“…But I’ve never lost the need to tell of my Alabama , to reveal it, lush and green and full of death. So I return, knowing what I’ve learned. I come back where life is slow dying and I poach for stories. I poach because I want to recover the paths while there is still time, before the last logging trucks rumble through and the old dark ways are forever hewn.” (From the introduction)
Tell it, he does, with the power of one who knows the people and places first hand. The short story collection, Poachers, holds within its pages a host of characters that work in a chemical plant and a sewage treatment plant. One runs a mill that makes grist for sandblasting and one tends bar in a honky-tonk. The characters live lives of desperation as raw and jagged as a broken tooth. In the introduction to this unique book, Tom Franklin reveals a personal history that includes early years hunting deer and wild turkey in the land between the Tombigbee and the Alabama Rivers .
In the title novella “Poachers,” the reader meets the three Gates brothers, as wild and untamed as the creatures that they hunt for a living. When they kill a rookie lawman, the legendary and mysterious game warden, Frank David, comes out of retirement to track them down. Some people say that Frank David was an orphan boy raised by a Cajun woman on a bayou. Some say that he was a special services sniper in the Korean War. Others say that he is so good at catching poachers because he himself was once the best poacher in the state. All agree that he is a man of average build, able to catch any poacher that he tracks. When one of the Gates brothers dies, killed by dynamite in a “fishing accident,” the local sheriff begins to think that the legendary lawman has crossed the line.
The title novella was included in two anthologies, New Stories from the South, The Year’s Best, 1999, and Best American Mystery Stories, 1999. It is a splendid example of Tom Franklin’s masterful storytelling. The novella alone makes the book, Poachers, a must read.
- Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
Ray Zimmerman’s poem “Glen Falls Trail,” won second place in the Tennessee Writer’s Alliance 2007 poetry contest.
If you see a writer on fire, fan the flames.
znaturalist@yahoo.com
http://znaturalist.blogspot.com/
http://www.chattanoogawritersguild.org/zimmerman.shtml
Review - The Canoist
The Canoeist
John Manuel
Jefferson Press
ISBN 0-97189-747-6
I remember rolling under the canoe; the way the water muffled the roar of the rapid and softened the sun’s glare. All around me were bubbles, millions and millions of them, rushing along at the same speed. We are like this – souls traveling through space. We are born in the tumult of the river, carried along by forces we cannot control. And we’re also beautiful in the way we hold the light, murmuring to one another on this journey toward the surface, our short spiraling lives.
–Page 208
The river in this passage was Tennessee’s Ocoee, portrayed as an ultimate challenge for canoeists, a river generally reserved for kayaks and white water rafts.
The author’s trip down the Ocoee is the climax to a journey that began on the peaceful waters of the Chagrin River near his parent’s home in Cleveland, Ohio. Along the way Manuel traversed such well known waterways as the Allagash (Maine), the Nantahala (North Carolina), and the Chattooga (Georgia). This last was the whitewater backdrop for the movie Deliverance based on James Dickey’s novel of the same title.
Manuel skillfully weaves in the story of his family and his career along the way. Within the pages he recounts emotional distance from his father, a hard nosed businessman who taught him canoeing skills but never understood his career path as a conservationist working for nonprofit organizations, or his later decision to become a writer.
Manuel also recounts the courtship of his wife Cathy, a strong canoeist in her own right. He tells the reader about his son and daughter, and about his determination to maintain a healthy relationship with them and not repeat the separation between him and his father.
Manuel’s ability to weave these many stories into a unified whole reveal his skill as a gifted writer. The canoeist is an enjoyable read.
- Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
John Manuel
Jefferson Press
ISBN 0-97189-747-6
I remember rolling under the canoe; the way the water muffled the roar of the rapid and softened the sun’s glare. All around me were bubbles, millions and millions of them, rushing along at the same speed. We are like this – souls traveling through space. We are born in the tumult of the river, carried along by forces we cannot control. And we’re also beautiful in the way we hold the light, murmuring to one another on this journey toward the surface, our short spiraling lives.
–Page 208
The river in this passage was Tennessee’s Ocoee, portrayed as an ultimate challenge for canoeists, a river generally reserved for kayaks and white water rafts.
The author’s trip down the Ocoee is the climax to a journey that began on the peaceful waters of the Chagrin River near his parent’s home in Cleveland, Ohio. Along the way Manuel traversed such well known waterways as the Allagash (Maine), the Nantahala (North Carolina), and the Chattooga (Georgia). This last was the whitewater backdrop for the movie Deliverance based on James Dickey’s novel of the same title.
Manuel skillfully weaves in the story of his family and his career along the way. Within the pages he recounts emotional distance from his father, a hard nosed businessman who taught him canoeing skills but never understood his career path as a conservationist working for nonprofit organizations, or his later decision to become a writer.
Manuel also recounts the courtship of his wife Cathy, a strong canoeist in her own right. He tells the reader about his son and daughter, and about his determination to maintain a healthy relationship with them and not repeat the separation between him and his father.
Manuel’s ability to weave these many stories into a unified whole reveal his skill as a gifted writer. The canoeist is an enjoyable read.
- Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
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