Crazyhorse – 2006

The newest issue of Crazyhorse contains four stories, twelve poets, and an interview with Robert and Penelope Creeley conducted a month before Mr. Creeley’s death in 2005. The highlight of the issue is the four new poems by Dean Young, whose work the last two years (appearing regularly in places such as The Believer and Poetry) is potentially the best of his career. In “Home,” Young continues this newest surge, writing “Home is where you’re always wrong / but only in familiar ways,” kicking off his trademark rollercoaster of imagery and fast, vibrant sentences, circling the idea of homecoming and approaching it from a variety of angles that each feel equally true. In fiction, John Tait’s “Reasons for Concern Regarding My Girlfriend of Five Days, Monica Garza,” a story told in lists of insecurities, worries, and remembrances.

The newest issue of Crazyhorse contains four stories, twelve poets, and an interview with Robert and Penelope Creeley conducted a month before Mr. Creeley’s death in 2005. The highlight of the issue is the four new poems by Dean Young, whose work the last two years (appearing regularly in places such as The Believer and Poetry) is potentially the best of his career. In “Home,” Young continues this newest surge, writing “Home is where you’re always wrong / but only in familiar ways,” kicking off his trademark rollercoaster of imagery and fast, vibrant sentences, circling the idea of homecoming and approaching it from a variety of angles that each feel equally true. In fiction, John Tait’s “Reasons for Concern Regarding My Girlfriend of Five Days, Monica Garza,” a story told in lists of insecurities, worries, and remembrances. That white, middle-aged narrator’s relationship to his young Hispanic girlfriend (whom he meets by getting in a car accident with her uninsured brother) is taut with the narrator’s longing and regret and also his inability to enjoy the mysteries of attraction without second-guessing everything about their relationship. When he writes towards the end of “a painful awareness that never before in my life has a pretty girl banged on my door and wailed my name in the middle of the night,” it’s obvious that Monica Garza’s feelings for him were perhaps less anxiety-ridden than his for her, and so her loss will probably be both more pure and less lasting. Crazyhorse continues here its tradition of bringing strong voices to our attention and presenting them in an attractive and appealing format. An excellent issue. [http://crazyhorse.cofc.edu/] –Matt Bell