The Chattahoochee Review – Summer 2004

“Everything that once made him rage is now reason to smile,” says the narrator in Judith Oritz Cofer’s “Tio’s Nostalgia” of her uncle, though she could just as easily be describing the contents of the latest Chattahoochee Review. This issue couples celebration and darkness; Cofer’s piece is at once a story of homecoming and of the desire to leave.

“Everything that once made him rage is now reason to smile,” says the narrator in Judith Oritz Cofer’s “Tio’s Nostalgia” of her uncle, though she could just as easily be describing the contents of the latest Chattahoochee Review. This issue couples celebration and darkness; Cofer’s piece is at once a story of homecoming and of the desire to leave. Robert Parham’s terrifying poem “What Boys Hunt” recalls the brutal ignorance of adolescence: “They smile and point, laugh, / the way at sixteen we talk / of women because we’re not men.” Many of the stories and poems in this issue are stories of coping—coping with family, puberty, or in Gary Corseri’s “Shodo: The Way of Writing”—another excellent piece in this volume—death and culture. Corseri writes about learning the art of Shodo from his Japanese father-in-law after the death of his own father. In addition to well crafted poetry and prose, The Chattahoochee Review also publishes book reviews, a feature too often neglected by other literary magazines. This issues’ rich selection is five reviews, four of which are of books of poetry. Of particular note is James Rioux’s skillful and glowing dissection Franz Wright’s Walking to Martha’s Vineyard. There is a sense through these pieces that art is a healing process that we enter into as deficient and come out of more complete. The Chattahoochee Review offers a similar experience and is well worth the reading.