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Knock – 2007

Number 8

2007

Biannual

Anne Wolfe

Knock: Hurt on Purpose is as amazing, off-the-wall, and anguished as the title suggests. There are some very strange pieces inside. Weird. Off-beat. Even creepy. And downright original, stunning, hair-raisingly good! Try the odd short-fiction piece, “Artificial Heart” by E.C. Jarvis, which effectively gives the reader a rise with its dark, twisted sense of humor. Then, “Plump” by Matthew Hamity, a love-hurt story, complete with a villainess-narrator that gives a chilly slant on the definition of “love,” complete with tears.

Knock: Hurt on Purpose is as amazing, off-the-wall, and anguished as the title suggests. There are some very strange pieces inside. Weird. Off-beat. Even creepy. And downright original, stunning, hair-raisingly good! Try the odd short-fiction piece, “Artificial Heart” by E.C. Jarvis, which effectively gives the reader a rise with its dark, twisted sense of humor. Then, “Plump” by Matthew Hamity, a love-hurt story, complete with a villainess-narrator that gives a chilly slant on the definition of “love,” complete with tears.

A prose poem, “Intermediary,” by John Olson contains odd, yet satisfying non sequiturs: “I’d like to go on a safari tasting of eternity and write a long letter from Iceland on a mahogany desk in Madagascar. Then mail it from Egypt.” “Boss Death” by Ron Savage is a devastatingly clever, witty tale of revenge, and no actual bosses were hurt in the writing of it.

Though much material is on the edge, on the safe side is “I Love Turtles” by Oliver Kellhammer; an exquisite memoir, a salute to the green, slow-paced way of life of a generation or two ago, and a reminder that change never stops. He writes, “I was shocked to see the orchard I walked through completely bulldozed. Its venerable apple trees, dating back to the days of the pioneers.”

The interview of Tim O’Brien, who authored If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Send Me Home while serving in Vietnam, is shocking. He describes censorship in Iraq, such as pictures that cannot be shown on television, edited letters to home, blogs, emails, resumes – and not only by soldiers, but by their families and civilians involved. They blank out much more than locations, but testimony and experiences, hurting soldiers that need to communicate. He said he was “dreading this interview because I’m so angry.”

Knock might be only 76 pages, but it’s 76 pages of dynamite.
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