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Our Latest Reviews:
Review of Michelle Richmond's Dream of the Blue Room, San Francisco: MacAdam/Cage, 2002
by
John H. Hafner
Excerpt -
In "The Man with the Blue Guitar," Wallace Stevens' Man states that "Things as they are/ Are changed upon the blue guitar." I thought of that line and that poem about the necessary merger of imagination and reality while I read Michelle Richmond's Dream of the Blue Room, a wonderful novel that also explores the necessary merger of facts and interpretation. The merger is "necessary" in both instances because the bare facts must be interpreted to produce meaning, because imagination must be applied to reality for reality to be other than chaos.
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The Battle Over the Carnal Envelope
by
Chris Brown
Excerpt -
Approximately half of the pictures are portraits of celebrities Bachardy admired as a child in the forties, "such as Bette Davis, Alice Faye, Henry Fonda, Paulette Goddard, Laurence Olivier, Ginger Rogers, [and] Barbara Stanwyck." Bachardy’s "eye-to-eye physical confrontation with an actor whose image had permeated [his] childhood was profound," yet, perhaps, a little disconcerting for him, because of the effects of aging on his famous subjects. Bachardy acknowledges the problem of confronting a weathered icon.
I keenly felt the injustice of rewarding their generosity in sitting for me, an unknown, fledgling artist, with a version of themselves which they would almost certainly think unflattering, and maybe cruel or even sadistic. But how to reconcile, for instance, the vigorous, handsome image of the Henry Fonda of my youth with the gaunt grimness of the stiff, red-eyed man of seventy-four who was sitting before me? Or the heavily painted and surgically altered face of Alice Faye with the actress who had first enchanted me nearly forty years earlier in her big-eyed, fleshy youth.
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The Illiad
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
Much
have I travell’d in the realms of gold,
And
many goodly states and kingdoms seen,
Round
many western islands have I been,
Which
bards in fealty to Apollo hold,
Oft
of one wide expanse had I been told,
That
deep-brow’d Homer ruled as his demsene,
Yet
did I never breathe its pure serene,
Till
I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold,
Then
I felt like some watcher of the skies,
When
a new planet swims into his ken,
Or
like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes,
He
star’d at the Pacific-and all his men,
Looked
at each other with a wild surmise,
Silent,
upon a peak in Darien.
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Unmapped Geographies A Review of A Language Without Geography
by
Charles Sweetman
Excerpt -
Translators are always willing to embrace the other, to
venture into new landscapes. . . .
Translators are eager to get to the next corner where the
geography of words has changed and new ways of seeing and feeling rise
at the horizon.
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Jesus
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
Even
now, as we cross to the beginning of the third millennium since his
birth, we count our days by his appearance on earth."
So writes Thomas Cahill of Jesus Christ in a new book,
Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After
Jesus, Doubleday ($24.95), the latest volume in "The Hinges of
History" series.
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Intruder
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
When
Faulkner asked his publishers for an advance to write this book, he
told them that it was to be a "blood and thunder mystery novel"
that would deal forthrightly with the issue of race.
Its underlying theme was to be, he wrote, the "relationship
between Negro and White…the premise being that the white people in
the South, before the North or the govt. or anyone else, owe and must
pay a responsibility to the Negro." Faulkner wrote the novel in just over a month, and revised it
in three.
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Monkey
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
On the eve of the American Civil War, Montgomery, Alabama was a
provincial state capital with only 9,000 residents, half of them
slaves. Dirt streets ran
through the town and cotton and corn grew right up to the city limits.
A correspondent for the London Times compared it "to a small
Russian town in the interior."
Yet this unimposing little city was chosen as the first capital
of the Confederate States of America, and even after the seat of
government was removed to Richmond, Montgomery continued to play an
important role in the Southern cause.
A new book examines Montgomery’s wartime history in
satisfying detail, Confederate Home Front: Montgomery During the
Civil War (Alabama, $29.95) by William Warren Rogers.
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Pelileu Then and Now
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
Dad wrote about his war experiences in the memoir With the Old Breed, first published almost twenty years ago and still in print (paper, Oxford, $13.95). Henry was sixteen years old when it was published, and from that early age he felt compelled to actually visit Peleliu and retrace Dad’s steps, the better to understand the horrible events that took place so long ago. Last summer he finally got the opportunity, and signed on with a tour group of veterans and military historians. One of the other men on the tour, a great admirer of With the Old Breed offered Dad an all expense paid trip if he would join the group. "No thanks," Dad chuckled, "I’ve already had an expense paid trip to Peleliu."
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St. John's
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
Imagine spending four years immersed in some of Western civilization’s greatest books. And imagine discussing these books around a small table each day with a handful of fellow-travelers. That is what students do at St. John’s College campuses in Annapolis, Md. and Santa Fe, N.M., untroubled by such shibboleths of higher education as textbooks, lectures, grades, majors and minors, computers or sororities and fraternities.
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St. Stephens Historical Overview
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
"Hobuckintoopa" the Indians called it. Situated atop limestone bluffs overlooking the Tombigbee River, it offered numerous advantages for a settlement--plentiful water and game and a commanding elevation above the river, where the first shoals north of Mobile made it a natural stopping place for travelers. In 1772 an Englishman observed that "sloops and schooners may come up to this rapid; therefore I judge some considerable settlement will take place."
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Willie Morris
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
Morris energized Harper’s and moved it to the center of American life. David Halberstam, one of Harper’s contributors, recalled that Morris "brought that magazine kicking and screaming into the present. With his love and very considerable charm he’d taken an archaic magazine and made it into an exciting magazine that was on the cutting edge." During the height of the tumultuous sixties, Morris brought some of the nation’s best writers to the fore-Norman Mailer, William Styron, Bill Moyers and Alfred Kazin, among others, all of whom addressed the divisive issues of the day.
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Typewriter, Photo-Collage, 2003 by Jules White
Review of Two Films by Donald Cammell: White of the Eye and Wild Side
by
James P. White
Excerpt -
On July 31 and August 1, American Cinematheque in Los Angeles (americancinematheque.com) sponsored two double-featured evenings showing four films of Donald Cammell. On the first night, Performance (the first film featuring Mick Jagger) and Demon Seed (starring Julie Christie) were shown at the Egyptian Theater. The second night featured White of the Eye (1988) and The Wild Side (1995).
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Homer
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
He is the first of all our poets, and arguably still the greatest.
Yet we know so little of him.
Even his name is enigmatic, Homer, meaning simply "the
hostage."
He lived sometime during the eighth century B.C. in the western
portion of Asia Minor.
According to ancient legend he was blind.
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A Literary Ramble Through New Orleans
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
Our
first view of New Orleans came as we raced across the broad back of
Lake Pontchartrain. Its
crowded skyline glimmered in the late afternoon haze and from that
distance it looked like any other major American city.
As we drove in closer, however, through the outer suburbs and
up and over the ugly industrial canal, the city began to display those
exotic aspects of its character for which it is so famous--a
historic brick church with arches, spires and stained glass windows
crowded close to the raised interstate, rows of frame shotgun houses
shoehorned onto tiny lots, their facades enlivened by elaborate sawn
filigree work and flourishing palm and live oak trees.
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Augusta Jane Evans
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
Augusta Jane Evans was born in Georgia in 1835.
Her family moved to Texas in 1845, then to Mobile four years
later. Like most 19th
century girls, she had no formal education, but she was a voracious
reader. She wrote her
first novel in secret while still a teenager, and presented it to her
father as a Christmas present in 1854.
It was published the following year with the title Inez: A
Tale of the Alamo. This
fledgling effort is a sentimental love story most notable for its
strong dash of anti-Catholicism.
Augusta followed this book with Beulah, 1859, which sold
a staggering 22,000 copies the first year of publication.
The family used the profits to buy Georgia Cottage on
Springhill Avenue.
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The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
After
World War II, Lord Burleigh was forced to sell off most of his
remaining acreage. The
older he got the more his war wounds pained him, and his children
thought him sad. He died
in 1955 after a stroke. His
widow struggled to keep the house up, but servants were impossible to
get and she despaired. Home
from Oxford, her eldest son suggested she open the house for tours,
charging the public to wander through Burleigh Hall’s magnificent
spaces. Being an
American, she was nothing if not practical, and thought it an inspired
idea. In 1957 Burleigh
Hall opened to the public and people streamed through by the
thousands, gawking at its treasures.
Lady Burleigh would stand on the staircase as they came in,
smiling and nodding. Occasionally, a guest would stray outside and marvel at the
green fields and hedgerows stretching towards the horizon, and wonder
what it was like to live in such an extraordinary place.
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Frank Turner Hollon Interview
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
Frank
Turner Hollon, 36, author of the newly published novella The Pains
of April, is an attorney by day and a writer by night, talented in
both endeavors but completely unpretentious.
He is a partner in the Robertsdale firm Holies, Dasinger &
Hollon, "a good ol’ country firm" he called it during a recent
interview.
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South Africa Journal
by
Jim and Doris Wolfe
Excerpt -
It is about two-thirty, so we decide to drive to Cape Point and the Cape of Good Hope (1 km west of Cape Point). Cape National Park is nice, but we see only ostrich and one baboon. Howling 60 knot winds and 30 ft breakers off the point. Doris clings to the Cape of Good Hope sign while I snap a picture, then we both rush to the car. Spot another group of ostrich by the road and pull over for some pictures. Inadvertently park between flock and German tourists with cameras. Loud words that end with ...heit. Back up and wave. They scratch gravel and roar away. We take some pictures.
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Review of Lance Lee, A Poetics for Screenwriters (Austin: U of Texas P, 2001), 145 pp.
by
Lia Hotchkiss
Excerpt -
With his concise yet detailed book A Poetics for Screenwriters, Lance Lee has written the ideal companion volume to any methodologically based manual of Hollywood screenwriting. His book offers not a method or an approach to writing screenplays, but a structural overview of the basic building blocks that comprise classical Hollywood narratives. In addition, as his title suggests, Lee sets screenwriting in the context of dramatic literature in general and thus thinks of his task as an updating, broadening, and clarification of the dramatic principles Aristotle puts forth in his Poetics. Lee’s approach employs order, common sense, accessible language, and a plethora of clear examples taken from such films as High Noon, Blue, Kramer vs. Kramer, Jurassic Park: The Lost World, Fanny and Alexander, Raiders of the Lost Ark, On the Waterfront, Witness, The Godfather, and The Usual Suspects, to name just a few.
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Duende
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
In so many ways, flamenco seems the very essence of Spain. Colorful, passionate, exotic and intense, its origins shrouded in mystery, this artistic melding of music and dance has long provided stock imagery for Iberian tourist brochures and posters. But what of the people who live their lives immersed in flamenco? Are they simply pandering to the touristas, or are they motivated by some deeper artistic impulse?
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Achilles
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
In so many ways, flamenco seems the very essence of Spain. Colorful, passionate, exotic and intense, its origins shrouded in mystery, this artistic melding of music and dance has long provided stock imagery for Iberian tourist brochures and posters. But what of the people who live their lives immersed in flamenco? Are they simply pandering to the touristas, or are they motivated by some deeper artistic impulse?
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Baghdad Burning
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
Libraries do not fare very well in war. The latest confirmation of this melancholy fact occurred earlier this month when the Baghdad National Library and Archives was looted and burned. Thousands of books, manuscripts, letters and newspapers were stolen or destroyed. The looters soon moved on to the Koranic Library and robbed or torched its priceless religious holdings. These outrages, along with the prior pillage of the internationally renowned Museum of Archaeology, mark a catastrophic cultural loss not just for Iraq, but for the entire world.
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Southern Bound
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
How to assess Robert E. Lee? There have always been strongly opposed views. After his death in 1870, he was both lionized and reviled. Former Confederate general Jubal Early expressed the sentiment that would obtain among white Southerners for over a century, “Our beloved Chief stands, like some lofty column which rears its head among the highest, in grandeur, simple, pure and sublime.” But Frederick Douglass, a former slave and eloquent abolitionist, registered disgust, “We can scarcely take up a newspaper that is not filled with [nauseating] flatterings. It would seem that the soldier who kills the most men in battle, even in a bad cause, is the greatest Christian, and entitled to the highest place in heaven.” Military genius or unimaginative butcher? Principled patriot or champion of slavery?
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Book Clubs
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
They go by a variety of names – Le Salon, The Blue Stockings, Second Thursday, Point Clear Book Club and The Book Group. On almost any given day in the Bay area, it is a good bet that somewhere a group of enthusiastic readers are gathered together to share their passion. No one has any idea how many book clubs there are in our area -- Page and Palette orders for 25 on the Eastern Shore alone -- but it is clear that they are numerous and robust.
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Brothel
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
They were “disorderly girls” -- prostitutes, pickpockets, shoplifters and the like -– who inhabited the lower rungs of 18th-century British society. Authorities routinely rounded them up and threw them into wretched prisons where they languished until death, release or transport “to parts beyond the seas.” A fascinating new book brings to vivid life a group of these unfortunates shipped out to Australia in 1789: The Floating Brothel: The Extraordinary True Story of an Eighteenth-Century Ship and its Cargo of Female Convicts (Theia, paper, $13.95) by Sîan Rees.
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Foote
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
Reynolds Price called him “the last of the Southern gentlemen.” Shelby Foote mesmerized millions of Americans with his rich, syrupy accent, graying beard and sad eyes in Ken Burns’ 1990 PBS documentary, “The Civil War.” Though he had written a readable and generally well-reviewed three-volume history of the conflict, Foote was a virtual unknown until the Burns film. Over the course of the 11-hour documentary, he appeared in 90 spots, accounting for an hour of the total air time, and emerged a star. For months afterwards, invitations to speak, interview requests and even marriage proposals poured into his Memphis home.
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Lee
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
How to assess Robert E. Lee? There have always been strongly opposed views. After his death in 1870, he was both lionized and reviled. Former Confederate general Jubal Early expressed the sentiment that would obtain among white Southerners for over a century, “Our beloved Chief stands, like some lofty column which rears its head among the highest, in grandeur, simple, pure and sublime.” But Frederick Douglass, a former slave and eloquent abolitionist, registered disgust, “We can scarcely take up a newspaper that is not filled with [nauseating] flatterings. It would seem that the soldier who kills the most men in battle, even in a bad cause, is the greatest Christian, and entitled to the highest place in heaven.” Military genius or unimaginative butcher? Principled patriot or champion of slavery?
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Greenville, Mississippi: A Literary Profile
by
John Sledge
Excerpt -
Editor’s Note: Greenville, Miss. (population 42,000), is famous for its many writers, among them Hodding Carter, Walker Percy, David Cohn, Shelby Foote and Ellen Douglas. I recently visited this Delta town to explore its remarkable literary heritage, to see if and how it is celebrated and to learn whether any promising new writers are emerging there. The following is my report.
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