The Louisville Review – Fall 2011

It’s difficult to pick just one short story as a “favorite” in The Louisville Review’s 70th issue. I’d much rather suggest that a disproportionate number of them are beyond good and deserve accolades. However, a few stood out especially.

It’s difficult to pick just one short story as a “favorite” in The Louisville Review’s 70th issue. I’d much rather suggest that a disproportionate number of them are beyond good and deserve accolades. However, a few stood out especially.

Kim Bradley’s “Cheating Time” deals with a woman named Jackie, who is fresh out of prison, and the relationship she has with her sister Cassie, who makes money by conning people—an act made even more despicable by the fact that one of her trademarks is introducing invasive species to guarantee repeat business. “Cassie diagnosed problems, whether homeowners had them or not, and if they didn’t, she saw to it they acquired one. She set up a greenhouse out back of the house, and nurtured exotic seedlings that had only one goal in life and that was to root deep and kill out native species.” The writing is great, and the dynamic between the sisters works well.

Tamar Jacobs’ “Out of His Hands” is about a young Vietnamese boy who’s attempting to deal with a traumatic moment: namely, his mother’s suicide attempt. Xuan, the boy, is at an age that feels alien and suffocating—having to also deal with a conflicted girlfriend and his constantly shifting role within society doesn’t help. Xuan is a fantastic character, superbly written, and he seems to float from scene to scene, always waiting for a line that the narrator refuses to provide.

Speaking of lines, there’s also a one-act play by Joe Oestreich. “Los Camioneros: A Play in One Act” is about a smuggler and a truck driver who both find themselves on the wrong side of the law when a “shipment” goes bad. The dialogue for the most part works well, although the female character—Carla—feels at times a little too brutish to fit in with the story. When she says “This is the INS’s wet dream,” I had to pause for a moment to try to envision Carla saying it.

This issue of TLR features several selections of poetry worth sharing. “Falwell” by R.T. Smith captures a scene in which the narrator watches a famous televangelist:

“The Word will burn a sinner,” he said on TV
I sent monthly checks from the egg money.

It is one of my favorite sections. Another:

When he bit
hard into the apple he chose out as the very best,
did he harvest that godly knowledge we’re all
yearning for but fear?

Allison Seay and Lisa Vinsant Connor also have great poems. Connor’s “Passport Dreams” invokes a fly-by of imagination and is especially pleasurable:

England offered nothing but
rain, double-decker buses, and
Shakespeare’s empty house.
Bowler-hatted men in bars
Enunciated every word
with precision.
Then Tarzan appeared.
We made love in the alley.
Big Ben drowned out my howls.
The English never noticed as they
plodded past the Palace at Westminster.

A second section of poems, entitled “The Children’s Corner,” is featured in this issue. Kids have a way with the vernacular that sometimes makes me jealous. They can mince and mix words in sentences in a way you’re taught to forget after a thousand English classes, and sometimes it’s depressing to see what you’ve lost.

Rainer Pasca’s “Rumi on the Table” is like that. It’s about a pet cat sitting on the table. It’s also about writer’s block. The last two lines make me want to scream because they’re so perfect. “I love you, Rumi. / You’re the king of gold.”

Morgan Lyons has equally gifted lines in equally gifted poems. From her poem “Beaches,” “Gulls surf upon the waves.” And from “Magic,” “Horses can talk / On Christmas Eve.” Reading poems like these can twist your mind in a way that you forgot was possible and maybe, just maybe, you can find inspiration in them.
[www.louisvillereview.org/]