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The Kenyon Review – Summer/Fall 2003

Volume 25 Numbers 3/4

Summer/Fall 2003

The Kenyon Review offers a special edition, with the theme of culture and place. The annual index appears in the back, offering an overview of an entire year fiction and poetry. Poems focus on place, from Jennifer Grotz’s artistic “Arrival in Rome” to the incredibly detailed “A Flat in Jaipur” by Vinay Dharwadker. The latter poem offers brilliantly vivid images, from the rainbow film of oil on water to banana peels “black and limp as strips of leather” (122). “Japanese Magnolia” by Virgil Suarez paints a delicate picture of the lovely flower, with simplistic double lined stanzas rich with meaning. The poems create scenes from distant countries, heightening the reader’s awareness of the world.

The Kenyon Review offers a special edition, with the theme of culture and place. The annual index appears in the back, offering an overview of an entire year fiction and poetry. Poems focus on place, from Jennifer Grotz’s artistic “Arrival in Rome” to the incredibly detailed “A Flat in Jaipur” by Vinay Dharwadker. The latter poem offers brilliantly vivid images, from the rainbow film of oil on water to banana peels “black and limp as strips of leather” (122). “Japanese Magnolia” by Virgil Suarez paints a delicate picture of the lovely flower, with simplistic double lined stanzas rich with meaning. The poems create scenes from distant countries, heightening the reader’s awareness of the world.

“Amar” by Daniel A. Hoyt offers one of the few stories in this collection. Framed by descriptions of food, the character, Amar, struggles with life in a cheap diner with a son to support. There, he meets a thoroughly modern angel living in the slums of Dresden. Rebecca McClanahan writes a diary-style essay, detailing her attempts to rescue a wounded squirrel and what she learns in the process. Other works of creative nonfiction include life in Japan and a valley of hermits “tucked tight against the border of Montana and Canada” (Rick Bass 152).

All of the writing in The Kenyon Review is very strong, colored with beautiful prose and sensual images, bringing other worlds into vibrant focus. This extra long double issue is even richer than most, offering readers a delightful journey across time and space. [The Kenyon Review, Walton House, Kenyon College, Gambier, OH 43022-9623.E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue $10. https://www.kenyonreview.org/] – VF

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