Small Press Book Review / Oct. 2002
HenryBerry
SEPTEMBER 2002
CURRENT INTEREST
THE CATHEDRAL - At the Heart of Los Angeles by Michael Downey, photography by
Tom Bonner. Liturgical Press, Collegeville, MN; sa...@litpress.org. 2002. 44
pp. $14.95, 9" x 12". color photographs.
(religious architecture; Catholicism)
A introduction to the magnificence new Catholic cathedral recently opened
in Los Angeles. The text on the place of a cathedral in Catholicism and the
impressions created by this new one are supplemented with Biblical passages and
lines of poetry. Bonner's crisp photographs display aspects of the
architecture, sculpture, and art of the cathedral, named Cathedral of Our Lady
of the Angeles. One would hope for a much larger book on this major new
religious and architectural work. But for a handsome introduction to mark its
completion and opening for the public, this serves well.
SHATTERED BONDS - A TRUE STORY OF SUSPICIOUS DEATH, FAMILY BETRAYAL AND A
DAUGHTER'S COURAGE by Cindy Band and Julie Malear. New Horizon Press, Far
Hills, NJ; n...@newhorizonpressbooks.com. 2003. 324+xviii pp. $25.95 hardcover.
photographs.
(true-crime; first-person narrative)
Cindy Band was only in high school when her mother was found dead at the
bottom of the cellar stairs of the family home. The death was at first believed
to be accidental. But from her father's lack of sorrow, Cindy began to have
suspicions that he was behind her mother's death. She found a detective who
shared her suspicions. Together, they carefully built a case against the
father. Although the father's guilt is disclosed early, how the mother was
murdered and how the father's role is eventually proved along with the dangers
the author faces in pursuing her suspicions make for a gripping, engrossing
tale.
BIOGRAPHY/AUTOBIOGRAPHY
BELOVED ISLAND - FRANKLIN AND ELEANOR AND THE LEGACY OF CAMPOBELLO by Jonas
Klein, Introduction by Senator George J. Mitchell. Paul S. Eriksson, Publisher,
Forest Dale, VT. 2000. 274+xiii pp. $16.95 trade paper. photos, appendices,
chronology, notes, bibliography, index.
(Franklin Roosevelt; American history)
Klein, with degrees in political and social science, focuses on the place
of Campobello Island in the lives of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Their
experience and the atmosphere of this Island forever associated with the
Roosevelts shaped the public and private lives of both of them. In giving a
roughly chronological account of the Roosevelt's times and experiences at
Campobello, Klein regularly makes references to events and circumstances in
their lives beyond this place. The author's readable tale is supported by many
notes.
GAMALIEL PAINTER - BIOGRAPHY OF A TOWN FATHER by W. Storrs Lee, Introduction by
John M. McCardell, Jr., President of Middlebury College. Paul S. Erikson,
Publisher, Forest Dale, VT. 2001 this edition. 250+xiii pp. $24.95 hardcover.
illustrations, notes, index.
(regional history; U. S. history)
Each of twelve chapters focuses on Gamaliel Painter's activities or
position at a different time of his life. Among these are pioneer, rebel (in
the Revolutionary War), sheriff, educator, civil engineer, and legislator. In
his varied activities throughout his life, Painter was influential in the
development of Vermont from a frontier region into a unified and prosperous
state in the decades from the latter 1700s to the early 1800s. He was also
influential in the founding of Vermont's noted Middlebury College. The first
edition of this book appeared in 1952 with the title Town Father.
BUSINESS/EMPLOYMENT
COMPUTER GRAPHICS AND ANIMATION - HISTORY, CAREERS, EXPERT ADVICE by Garth
Gardner, Ph.D. Garth Gardner Co., Washington, DC; in...@ggcinc.com. 2002. 175
pp. $24.95 trade paper. illustration, appendices, glossary, bibliography,
index.
(computers; employment guide)
The varied contents of the book is geared to helping the reader along with
the seven steps recommended by the author for developing an career in the field
of computer graphics and animation. Similar to steps in other careers, the
seven advised by Gardner are study traditional fine arts, pick an area of
concentration, learn about the field's history and theories, develop necessary
skills, have your work stand out, prepare a portfolio, and keep up with changes
in the field. Gardner's extensive academic and public-speaking experience in
this computer field enables him to condense and focus a great deal of
historical and technological material to the benefit of the reader looking for
an authoritative and timely guide to a career in it.
CHILDREN'S BOOKS
CURIOUS CAT WALK - story and pictures by John Gravdahl. Propeller Press, Fort
Collins, CO; www.propellerpress.com. 2003. 32 pp. $16.95 hardcover, 8" x 8".
color illustrations.
(picture book; animal story; ages 4-10)
The story is simple - Nosy the cat follows a butterfly that awakens him
off the boat where Nosy lives for a journey through the city. What makes this
especially of interest to young readers is that the story is told in several
haikus, making the simple text a lesson in this poetic form. "Tiptoes to the
point/and bumpy clouds go breezing. Tip top heights in sight." Bold, yet simple
colorful illustrations nicely complement the fetching haikus.
THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW by Washington Irving, illustrated by Gary Kelley.
Creative Editions, Mankato, MN. 2002 this edition. 63 pp. $20.00 hardcover,
8-1/2" x 13". color illustrations.
(picture book; story; ages 4-10)
Gary Kelley's dreamy, full-page illustrations perfectly capture the
balance of normalcy and mystery of Washington Irving's well-known tale. Many of
the illustrations also depict what have come to be icons of the early New
England that is the setting of the tale--e. g., autumn harvest, community
dancing, an elderly woman in a chair with a book on her lap. The deft
illustrations capture the imagination of young readers; also, they are of
interest to collectors of children's books for their art. Kelley's art work has
appeared in the periodicals Time, Sports Illustrated, and Rolling Stone.
FICTION
PUSHED TO SHORE by Kate Gadbow. Sarabande Books, Louisville, KY;
Sarad...@aol.com. 2003. 307+xii pp.
(novel; multicultural literature)
The disturbances and changes in Janet Hunter's own life bring her to
connect with the situation of the Southeast Asians--Vietnamese and Hmong
refugees--in the class she teaches in Montana. The connection is realized when
Hunter reads an essay by one of her students about his flight from
Communist-controlled Vietnam in a small boat with three of his friends. In this
essay, the student writes about being "pushed to shore by a finger of God."
Gadbow is the winner of the 2001 Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction. She
skillfully treats the shared pains and hopes of Hunter and her Asian students,
but also examines the remoteness and unpredictability of some of these
foreigners in a culture that is perplexing and in some ways closed to them.
HISTORY
PALE HORSE AT PLUM RUN - THE FIRST MINNESOTA AT GETTYSBURG by Brian Leehan.
Minnesota Historical Society Press, St. Paul, MN; www.mnhs.org/mhspress. 2002.
244+xx pp. $29.95 hardcover. illustrations, appendices, notes, index.
(Civil War; American history)
Leehan, a librarian at the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis, has
studied letters, newspaper reports, magazine articles and similar documents to
piece together the activities and contributions of the First Minnesota regiment
in the battle of Gettysburg. Accounts of this regiment's role have been
confused and even contradictory in parts. But by gathering and poring over the
accounts given by members of the regiment in numerous and varied records
relating to the battle, Leehan brings much clarity to this confused matter. And
he does so in a treatment and writing style that readers of Civil War and
military history books will find engaging as well as informative. Essays on
figuring time in the mid nineteenth century when Gettysburg was fought and the
weapons used in the battle are added touches making this a book readers
attracted to military subjects will enjoy.
LITERATURE
HOW TO KEEP YOUR LANGUAGE ALIVE - A COMMONSENSE APPROACH TO ONE-ON-ONE LANGUAGE
LEARNING by Leanne Hinton with Matt Vera and Nancy Steele. Heyday Books,
Berkeley, CA; mau...@heydaybooks.com. 2002. 123+vii pp. $15.95 trade paper, 7"
x 10". illustrations.
(endangered languages; language instruction)
Hinton, the primary author, is a professor of linguistics at the U. of CA,
Berkeley. She and her co-authors outline a program for conserving a traditional
language or learning a new one which entails performing everyday tasks such as
washing dishes, cleaning house, or going for a walk. These and other familiar
activities with their familiar tasks, movements, and objects are a sort of
training ground for one to learn aspects of a language so that one can use it
in the circumstances one is most likely to be in when speaking it oneself. The
authors' commonsense program is based on the principle of learning by doing
rather than classroom instruction complemented by exposure to the literature of
another language. The program is simplified even further by being broken down
into elementary steps, parts, and objectives. Readers are carried beyond the
language associated with the various everyday activities which are the bases of
the program by instruction in creating their own stories and learning to
recount traditional stories of a particular language. The commonsense language
program depends on a speaker of a language who is not necessarily a teacher
with formal training, and it can be adapted to any language.
SOFIA'S SAINTS by diana Lopez. Bilingual Review Press, Tempe, AZ; B...@ASU.EDU.
2002. 147 pp. $14.00 trade paper.
(novel; Hispanic literature; Hispanic studies)
The main character Sofia Loren Sauceda is a person of modest talents and
impassioned ties--like most persons. She's 30 years old, works as a waitress,
sells her art work of saints images burned into wood at flea markets, and tries
mightily to save the house she grew up in when it is in danger of being sold.
Her story is told in the first person. Many readers will identify with Sofia
although the novel has particularly Hispanic elements. The author lives in
Texas.
MELYMBROSIA by Virginia Woolf, Edited and Introduced by Louise DeSalvo. Cleis,
San Francisco, CA; cl...@cleispress.com. 2002 this edition. 350+xxvii pp.
$24.95 hardcover.
(novel; modern literature)
The first published version of this novel written by Woolf when she was 30
years old appeared in 1915 under the title The Voyage Out. This novel titled
Melymbrosia is the first version of the published work; Woolf wrote it in 1912.
But Woolf followed the advice of friends that she tone down and in some cases
remove the controversial parts on homosexuality, feminism, and British
colonialism so as not to threaten her fledgling career when the book was
published. DeSalvo constructed this earlier text from close study of over 1,000
manuscript pages of Woolf's from the Berg Collection at the New York Public
Library. More clearly than The Voyage Out, this work shows Woolf's interests
and ideas which found their way into all of her writings. And it is a prime
example of early modernist writing.
NEW AGE
THE URBAN PRIMITIVE - Paganism in the Concrete Jungle by Raven Kaldera nd
Tannin Schwartzstein. Llewellyn, St. Paul, MN; 800-THE-MOON. 2002. 268+xvi pp.
$14.95 trade paper. illustrations bibliography, index.
(New Age; paganism)
The co-authors tell how one can practice paganism--usually associated with
the world of nature--in an urban environment. Pagan gods and goddesses
ordinarily associated with the natural world are adapted to the circumstances
and activities of urban life. Pagan practices ordinarily performed in a natural
setting are adapted to an urban setting. Plants common to cities can have the
role of related plants found in the woods and fields. Even common city animals
such as dogs, seagulls, and ants can be incorporated into a system of urban
paganism. Kaldera and Schwartzstein, who both are active in paganism, show how
an individual can have the holistic life offered by paganism in an environment
many would assume is contrary to paganism.
POETRY
AGAINST CONSOLATION by Robert Cording. CavanKerry Press, Fort Lee, NJ;
el...@cavankerrypress.org. 2002. 80 pp. $14.00 trade paper.
(collected poems)
In the poem Water-ouzel [a type of bird], Cording writes that it touches
down in places "and walks casually/ from one existence to another,/a door
opening in a rift of dark water...." Throughout the poems, Cording similarly
writes about how easily subjects--whether persons, animals, or objects--move
from one state of being to another. But this is not magic, transformation, or
surrealism. Rather, for Cording, this abundance of different states evokes the
many dimensions of existence. One experiences these dimensions rather than
changes by moving into different ones. The title of the collection, Against
Consolation, is an oblique plea from the poet to experience each dimension in
such a way that one does not seek consolation, which would move one
intentionally and self-consciously into another state. In being "against
consolation," one would experience different dimensions fully.
LOVE AMONG THE GREATS by Edith Pearlman. Eastern Washington U., Spokane, WA;
spo...@mail.ewu.edu. 2002. 162 pp. $15.95 trade paper.
(collected poems)
Pearlman writes about average persons of all sorts--children, mothers, old
people, clerics, workers, etc.--in an understated style. This style, however,
does not reduce or cramp her characters. Nor is it like minimalism, which is
concerned almost exclusively with the effects and possibilities of a miserly
use of language. Rather, Pearlman's understated style is revelatory. For the
reader, it gives the pleasure of people-watching. The core of Pearlman's
characters is not exposed in a sudden moment of action or thought. For
Pearlman, the understatement bespeaks familiarity; and it is by this the reader
is connected with her characters.
APPARITION HILL by Mary Ruefle. CavanKerry Press, Fort Lee, NJ;
el...@cavankerrypress.org. 2002. 70 pp. $14.00.
(collected poems)
"I know these things are fleshless and void,/as unimportant as a
mouse...," - from Cul-de-Sac. Ruefle ends this poem with the lines, "Brother, I
have been unable to attain a balance/between important and unimportant things."
This perspective--or absence of perspective--does not give rise to confusion or
despair for the poet. Rather, it results in seeing all things--objects,
circumstances, relationships, etc.--as radical. Occasionally, this radical,
discrete, existence of what is sensed or thought is modified slightly by memory
or reflection. But any connections or inter-relationships seem spare or
accidental. Thus, the style is stoical and exact, uncolored by any wishful,
theoretical, or romantic penchants.
THE OWL QUESTION by Faith Shearin. Utah State U. Press, Logan, UT;
800-239-9974; bbig...@upress.usu.edu. 2002. 61+xi pp. $15.95 hardcover.
(collected poems)
Shearin gently yearns for the elusive, pregnant fullness of the world. "I
wake up wondering: how will I fit all this life in one life?" - from Piano
Lesson. This continual yearning occasionally gives rise to a disappointment,
but it never goes so far as confusion or anger. Shearin keeps her wholeness and
shape despite the yearning. Her yearning for a greater fullness, the fullness
of the world beyond herself, is an emotion somewhat like spirituality by which
she somehow keeps her wholeness. This volume is the winner of the 2002 May
Swenson Poetry Award selected by the well-known poet Mark Doty, who adds a
short Foreword.
RELIGION
THE LITTLE MANUAL OF PERFECT ADORATION by Fr. Joseph-Marie Perrin, O.P. Sophia
Institute Press, Manchester, NH; 800-888-9344; www.sophiainstitute.com. 2002
this edition. 234+xii pp. $14.95, 4-1/2" x 6".
(Catholicism; prayer)
This is an abridgement of a 1961 book that was written in Nazi-occupied
France by a priest who helped Jews escape among other acts of opposition. In
his brief remarks on the many facets of prayer, Perrin includes references to
the Gospels. Not only Catholics, but any reader interested a more intense and
positive spiritual life would benefit from Perrin's clear and insightful
guidance on prayer.
THE GOSPELS OF MARY MAGDALENE translated from the Coptic and Commentary by
Jean-Yves Leloup, English translation and notes by Joseph Rowe. Inner
Traditions, Rochester, VT; 800-246-8648; www.innertraditions.com. 2002.
178+xxii pp. $14.95 trade paper. notes, bibliography.
(religion; women's studies)
"The Gospel of Mary makes up the first part of the so-called Berlin
Papyrus" acquired by a German in the late 1800s and kept in the Egyptology
section of the National Museum of Berlin since then. LeLoup's commentary,
published now for the first time in English, is a recent commentary on this
"gospel" which has drawn the attention of many theologians and philosophers
since its discovery. The gospel is believed to have been written in the third
century. LeLoup's reading of the extant text stresses its gnostic and feminist
aspects. The form of the gospel is a dialogue between a teacher and Mary
Magdalene as a student. One of its major themes is freeing oneself from nature,
or material existence. In one passage, Christ's apostle Peter seeks the
knowledge Mary Magdalene has gained as a student the "Teacher
loved...differently from other women." The gospel itself and LeLoup's
multifaceted commentary offer rich and stimulating spiritual illumination for
readers versed in religion and philosophy.
SELF-HELP/HOW TO
FACING A CROWD - HOW TO FOIL YOUR FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING by Keith Clinton.
Drake Publishing, Bend, OR; drakepu...@earthlink.net. 236 pp. $18.95 trade
paper. forms, bibliography, index.
Clinton helps the reader develop the skill of speaking in public by
putting the desirable traits in clear, positive statements as titles for
chapters--Seek appropriate opportunities; Take control, use gestures, and show
emotion; Organize your information, etc. At the age of 43, this author became
determined to overcome his fear of public speaking. The reader profits greatly
from the self-consciousness and mature reflection Clinton had in acquiring the
confidence and techniques for public speaking at this age. He sympathetically
and knowledgeably takes the reader through all of the mental qualities,
techniques, inside tips, self-evaluation, and other facets of becoming an
effective, and even a polished public speaker. In instructing and encouraging
the reader, Clinton is aware that while learning to overcome reservations or
fears of speaking in public, one is also strengthening oneself and enabling
oneself to take an active role in society.
The Small Press Book Review is posted 10 tens a year on the newsgroup
alt.books.reviews. Books for general readers in all categories from small
presses, independent publishers, and university presses are reviewed. Review
copies can be sent to P. O. Box 176, Southport, CT 06490. Henry Berry is the
Review's editor/publisher.