THEMA – Spring 2004

I wish more magazines were like this one. This always-a-theme-issue journal features a spectacular theme this time, “off on a tangent,” and the pieces featured here are just what I like—tangential, surprising, rarely staying in one place for too long.

I wish more magazines were like this one. This always-a-theme-issue journal features a spectacular theme this time, “off on a tangent,” and the pieces featured here are just what I like—tangential, surprising, rarely staying in one place for too long. I especially love Leslie Lewinter-Suskind’s “Klonya,” a short story about a Polish manicurist: “She does not indicate that her hate and my Jewishness have any connection at all. I attribute this to what I refer to as the ‘hay fever’ effect, that is, the way a person who suffers from hay fever feels about the one hyacinth in a bud vase.” I also especially enjoyed Marlene M. Miller’s “Tangential Dreams,” which progresses through phases: “Dreams of Falling,” “The Money,” “The Article,” “Breaking News,” “Two Conversations,” and “Dreams of Flying.” Peter B Fagan’s “Cool Asian Fire” is also a strong point. While some of the pieces are stronger than others, and while the journal is pretty fiction-heavy (a bit too much so for my taste), overall I loved the theme enough (as an avowed surrealist) to enjoy the twists and turns that the theme affords. To quote Marlene M. Miller, “Dreams of flying are common, most people have them…. she dreamt she hovered high above her own unlived life tirelessly the way a hummingbird might above a pale common flower.” Nice stuff! [THEMA, THEMA Literary Society, Box 8747, Metairie, LA 70011-8747. E-mail: [email protected]. Single issue: $8. http://themaliterarysociety.com/] – LC