Posted May 1, 2013
Let Me Clear My Throat
Nonfiction by Elena Passarello
Sarabande Books, October 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1936747450
Paperback: 240pp; $15.95
Review by Julie Swarstad Johnson
“Once the Voyager was loaded with its telemetry modulation units and spectrometers and radioisotope thermoelectric generators,” writes Elena Passarello in Let Me Clear My Throat,
“we then made the decision to affix human voices to the
contraption’s flanks.” This image of singing voices rocketed beyond
the edges of our solar system vivifies Passarello’s major concerns
in her debut essay collection. Here, she examines the human voice,
what it represents and communicates, and the global cultures and
historical periods that have highly valued it…
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So Recently Rent a World
New and Selected Poems: 1968-2012
Poetry by Andrei Codrescu
Coffee House Press, December 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1-56689-300-8
Paperback: 352pp; $22.00
Review by Patrick James Dunagan
Andrei Codrescu is a grown-up punk kid who cherishes the pleasures of life. Reading his poems is to enter into the mind of a brilliant classroom prankster (and at least part-time sex junkie). There’s a lot going on, and he has a lot to say about all of it. Zany, off-the-wall goofiness finds its place alongside serious astute reflection. This New and Selected
is all the more cherished for exhibiting the range of the poet’s
self-transformation over the course of his lifetime…
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Ex-Boyfriend on Aisle 6
Fiction by Susan Jackson Rodgers
Press 53, October 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1935708650
Paperback: 180pp; $14.95
Review by Jodi Paloni
In the nineteen stories from Ex-Boyfriend on Aisle 6,
Susan Jackson Rodgers creates strategically placed portals for
readers to enter the private world of her characters as they embark
on the difficult work of being human. This may sound like the
ordinary job of short fiction, but often Rodgers imposes intriguing
acts of karmic justice to waken her characters out of any chance of
going about business as usual…
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Beat Poetry
Nonfiction by Larry Beckett
Beatdom Books, October 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0956952530
Paperback: 154pp; $16.00
Review by Lydia Pyne
Any collection of poetry and prose tells a particular story. It speaks to the influences, the narrative threads, and the aesthetic focus of the collector. The collection—the set of prosaic curios—provides the reader with the story the collector (the anthologizer) has pulled together to display. Beat Poetry
is a particularly interesting collection of poetry—one part
encyclopedia, one part timeline, one part showcase for the poetry
itself, and one part literary critique…
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full review]
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The Heroin Chronicles
Edited by Jerry Stahl
Akashic Books, January 2013
ISBN-13: 978-161775-106-6
Paperback: 240pp; $15.95
Review by David Breithaupt
If President Obama created a cabinet position for a Department of Heroin, he would no doubt appoint Jerry Stahl to run it. Chances of this happening are slim, so instead we have Stahl editing this wide-ranging anthology of pieces that, as the title suggests, chronicles the joys, pitfalls, and harrowing nature of the American narcotic experience.
Readers familiar with the writings of Jerry Stahl will concede his
expertise in the area of addiction and recovery, most notably
depicted in his masterful memoir…
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Last Friends
Fiction by Jane Gardam
Europa Editions, April 2013
ISBN-13: 978-1-60945-093-9
Paperback, 240 pages, $16.00
Review by Olive Mullet
If you have not read Jane Gardam, you’re in for a treat. Her fans will be delighted that this British writer—the only two-time Whitbread Award winner—has a third novel in her Old Filth trilogy, Last Friend.
Old Filth is Sir Edward Feathers’s nickname, an acronym for “Failed
in London, Try Hong Kong.” Feathers is a judge for engineering and
industrial suits in said city. His by-gone era, the Empire’s end, is
represented by old people, his friends, and his memories, which are
unsentimental although nostalgic…
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Elizabeth Bishop in Brazil and After
A Poetic Career Transformed
Nonfiction by George Monteiro
McFarland, August 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0-7864-6693-1
Paperback: 224pp; $55.00
Review by Alyse Bensel
George Monteiro’s series of critical essays investigating Elizabeth Bishop’s work during and outside of her time living in Brazil is geared toward readers already familiar with Bishop. Divided into two sections, “Brazil” and “Elsewhere,” Monteiro’s essays range from a few pages that briefly analyze a single poem or event to larger works that encompass multiple poems, collected letters and correspondence, and Bishop’s biography. Astonishingly comprehensive, Elizabeth Bishop in Brazil and After
manages a thorough undertaking of situating Bishop’s life to her
work through…
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The Dervish
Fiction by Frances Kazan
OPUS, April 2013
ISBN-13: 978-1-62316-004-3
Hardcover: 256pp; $24.95
Review by Girija Sankar
Turkey is in turmoil. World War I has just ended and the mighty Ottoman Empire is on the brink of collapse. The empire is being carved up as Allied protectorates. In a world of foggy truths, mistrust, deceit, and the weariness of war enters a young American widow, who is fleeing from memories of a distant past and wounds still raw from the death of a loved one. This all provides the dramatic setting for The Dervish, Frances Kazan’s follow-up novel to Halide’s Gift.
Mary Benedetti, the American protagonist, narrates the story more
than 40 years after her husband’s death…
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Bite
An Anthology of Flash Fiction
Anthology edited by Katey Schultz and John Carr Walker
Trachodon Publishing, November 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0-6157-2189-7
Paperback: 121pp; $12.95
Review by Kirsten McIlvenna
In the editor’s note, Katey Schultz points out that to her, the best flash fiction “mark[s] a moment in the story with such vivid texture, the reader has no choice but to feel it right between the eyes.” And that is a great description of all of the pieces included in this collection. In each one, you can pinpoint the exact moment where it twists, revealing a deeper meaning, a hidden truth, or a surprising plot change.
In Brendan Isaac Jones’s “Mitch,” the narrator is a young boy who,
when his pet fish dies…
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The Sultan of Byzantium
Fiction by Selçuk Altun
Translated from the Turkish by Clifford Endres and Selhan Endres
Telegram Books, April 2013
ISBN-13: 978-1846591488
Paperback: 288pp; $14.95
Review by Patricia Contino
“What are you, some kind of aristocratic character escaped from a romantic novel?” asks the comely professor of the narrator/protagonist, who fits this description so perfectly. He also may or may not be The Sultan of Byzantium
of Selçuk Altun’s absorbing novel. The longest-lasting and most
satisfying intrigue is that readers never learn the name of the
narrator, a dashing economics professor, until the book’s
conclusion. How it is revealed, resolving many a loose end, is well
worth the journey getting there…
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Poems
Poetry by François Villon
Translated from the French by David Georgi
Northwestern University Press, December 2012
ISBN-13: 978-0-8101-2878-1
Paperback: 304pp; $21.95
Review by Patrick James Dunagan
I’ve found more often than not among poetry fans the myth of
Villon the “criminal poet” usually exists far in advance of any
experience reading the actual work. Much of this is a result of the
general lackadaisical attention given in our day and age to
searching out older texts on our own to enlarge our reading. We tend
to hear from others more than discover for ourselves, taking what we
hear as valid evidence rather than looking for ourselves. Books such
as this one are needed opportunities to rectify this behavior…
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Safe as Houses
Fiction by Marie-Helene Bertino
University of Iowa Press, October 2012
ISBN-13: 978-1609381141
Paperback: 164pp; $16.00
Review by Katy Haas
In her debut short story collection, Safe as Houses, Marie-Helene Bertino fills the pages with wit and warmth in her nine stories. Bertino, who served as the associate editor of One Story for six years, shows good mastery of the short story in her unique storylines—such as dating the idea of your significant other, or a lonely alien coming to Earth to learn more about humans.
The title story follows a man named Pluto and his newly acquired
partner, Mars, as they break into someone’s house to destroy the
sentimental objects there. Leaving money and material valuables
alone.…
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