SMALL PRESS BOOK REV / Nov-Dec 03
HenryBerry
NOVEMBER/ DECEMBER 2003
[Reviews are not copyrighted; complete reviews or excerpts can be reprinted
without permission, but reference to the Review is requested.]
CURRENT INTEREST
REBEL MUSICS - Human Rights, Resistant Sounds, and the Politics of Music Making
edited by Daniel Fischlin and Ajay Heble. Black Rose Books, Montreal, Quebec;
dist. by Consortium, 800-283-3572. 2003. 254 pp. $53.99 hardcover. $24.99 trade
paper. photographs, chapter notes, chapter bibliographies, index.
(popular music; popular culture)
The editors--both professors of English at the U. of Guelph--cast a wide
net with respect to musicians, span of years, and nationalities to form the
group practicing "rebel music." Bob Marley, Thomas Mapfumo, Frank Zappa, and
Ice-T are among those included in it. While all of the musicians undoubtedly
intentionally tried to rile the mainstream to some degree and hoped their music
would somehow contribute to a better world, the thrust of the eight articles
seems to go too far with this. For the most part, the diverse outstanding and
undeniably influential musicians of the past three decades or so are dealt with
as if they calculated both the messages and effects of their music much more
than they did. Thus the subject of the interaction between art and politics and
society is reduced to a subject of an intentional, ongoing, and inevitable
conflict between politics and popular music. Despite the somewhat procrustean
view of music, the collected essays provide much detail about individual
musicians and social activism they and others they were momentarily or for a
longer time associated with engaged in. With its global scope and eclectic
essayists including a cabaret performer, filmmaker, and radio-program host,
"Rebel Musics" ties together major musicians, varied styles and genres of
popular music, and different music trends for a view of how a certain type of
popular music is engaged with the complex, inter-connected, global world of
today.
INNER SANCTUM MYSTERIES: Behind the Creaking Door by Martin Grams, Jr. OTR
Publishing, Churchville, MD; mmar...@hotmail.com. 2002. 265 pp. $29.95 trade
paper. appendices, index.
(radio program; media studies)
In this overview for fans of suspenseful mysteries with frequent
supernatural overtones and for students of popular entertainment, a history of
the Inner Sanctum mysteries is followed by sections on the long-lasting series
as it appeared in movies, television, radio, and novels. Another section covers
interest in the series in Australia and South America. The book suits both
readers looking for factual material as well as ones who would enjoy
reminiscing about the series. Material on publicity budgets, the publication of
novels, casts for some programs, and such is found with synopses of the more
than 500 radio programs. This is one of several books by the avid mystery buff
Grams on popular mysteries of the early days of radio.
SPREE - A Cultural History of Shopping by Pamela Klaffke. Arsenal Pulp Press,
Vancouver, British Columbia; www.arsenalpulp.com; ki...@arsenalpulp.com; dist.
in U. S. by Consortium. 2003. 231 pp. $17.95 trade paper. illustrations,
bibliography, index.
(cultural studies; consumerism; popular culture)
Ending with an astrological guide for "what your astrological sign says
about your shopping style," Klaffke's book on this vein on pop culture is not
meant to be analytic or critical. It's a "spree" through the busy world of
contemporary shopping. Not only the text, but frequent sidebars and pictures
relate colorful and topical material on shopping. Entertaining, "Spree" is
nonetheless substantive as well--with both historical and timely matter on
malls, the retail system, the diversity of shopping options, consumerism, and
related subjects. There's a bibliography in smaller print too that's 8 pages
long. The literary editor of the Calgary Herald who is also a media consultant
delivers a topical book in a lively, sometimes almost chatty style which holds
the readers attention as she looks forward to the next interesting and
informative subject to come up.
ART
AT WORK - The Art of California Labor edited by Mark Dean Johnson. California
Historical Society Press/Heyday Books, Berkeley, CA; ord...@heydaysbooks.com;
a...@heydaybooks.com. 2003. 154+xx pp. $35.00 trade paper, 9" x 11". color/b+w
photographs, illustrations, chronology, bibliographies.
(regional art; California art; American art history)
Over 100 paintings, photographs, murals, woodcuts, and other art work
present a wide-ranging gallery of art dealing with aspects of labor in
California during the 20th century. Text comments on the artist, artistic
qualities, labor subjects or statements, and in some cases the historic
significance of individual works. The text also traces the labor history of
California in the 1900s. Attention is given to the different ethnic groups
included in this labor history--e. g., Chicanos, Chinese, African
Americans--and California as a focus for primary labor issues in the U. S. and
for labor activism. Readers can appreciate the high-quality illustrations, the
commentary on particular works, and the overview of labor issues and struggles
in California.
PHOTO SEX - Fine Art Sexual Photography Comes of Age edited by David Steinberg,
Foreword by A. D. Coleman. Down There Press, San Francisco, CA;
www.goodvibes.com/dtp/dtp.html; downthe...@excite.com. 2003. 128 pp. $35.00
trade paper, 9" x 12". black-and-white photographs.
(sexuality; photography)
Gay sex, lesbianism, masochism, sadism, masturbation, play-acting,
inter-racial sex, inter-generational sex, furtive sex, exhibitionist sex, and
sexual escapades or innuendoes as part of festivities are all represented in
more than 100 photographs. Ordinary individuals, not models or pornography
workers, are in the photos. Whether the realistic photos are the best examples
of the coming of age of fine art sexual photography as the subtitle says is
questionable. Introductory text makes the point that sexuality has come out
into the open. But this is a point no one in contemporary society denies.
Anyway, the numerous collected photographs of the diversity of sexual behavior
is one more example of the libertine attitude of contemporary society regarding
all sexual matters.
CHILDREN'S
ABBY AND FRIENDS M IS FOR MANNERS Mary Jesse, illustrated by Jennifer Cherif.
Hexagon Blue, Sammamish, WA; www.haxagonblue.com; in...@hexagonblue.com. 2003.
48 pp. $15.95 hardcover. color illustrations.
(behavior; manners)
The third-grader Abbey's dinner invitation to her friend Sarah's house at
the end of the school year makes for the story line highlighting good manners.
Abbey is considerate, and bakes chocolate cookies to bring. She picks out nice
clothes to wear. She, with her little brother, arrives on time. And Abbey eats
each dish she is served, helping to clean up at the end of the dinner. Her
manners are so good, Sarah's mother compliments her when she leaves, "You have
such nice manners." Brightly-colored, somewhat cartoonish illustrations show
Abbey's many acts of good manners.
HISTORY
FORT WARREN - New England's Most Historic Civil War Site by Jay Schmidt. UBT
Press, Amherst, NH; jay.s...@att.net. 2003. 149+ix pp. $14.95 trade paper.
photographs, illustrations, diagrams, map, appendices, glossary, bibliography,
index.
(Civil War; Northeast U. S. regional history)
Fort Warren in Boston harbor got its name from the Bostonian Dr. Joseph
Warren who was killed in the Battle of Bunker Hill in the Revolutionary War.
Construction was begun in 1833, and the Fort was still not finished at the
opening of the Civil War in 1861. Nonetheless, Fort Warren was fortified to
protect Boston Harbor from feared attacks by Confederate raiders or warships.
Later in the Civil War, it was used also as a prison for captured Confederates,
including several generals. The Fort was armed to defend the Harbor in the
Spanish-American War and the two World Wars. Schmidt is a history buff who
writes a colorful and informative brief history which can also be used an
introduction and guide for visitors to this National Historic Landmark.
BELOVED BRIDE - The Letters of Stonewall Jackson to His Wife, 1857-1863 by
William Potter. Vision Forum, San Antonio, TX; www.visionforum.com. notes,
bibliography.
(Civil War; Confederate general)
Mary Anna Morrison was "Stonewall" Jackson's second wife; the first died
from complications from a still-birth. Most of his letters to Mary were
believed to have been destroyed by her shortly before her death in 1915.
Excerpts of the letters published in 1891 are used by Potter in this
biographical portrait of Jackson. In addition to describing military life,
Jackson's letters reveal him as a husband and firm believer in God's presence
in the lives of individuals and events. The many excerpts along with Potter's
interspersed background material tying them together supplement the standard
image of Jackson as a formidable Confederate general.
MONTSEGUR AND THE MYSTERY OF THE CATHARS by Jean Markale. Inner Traditions
International, Rochester, VT; www.inner traditions.com;
in...@innertraditions.com. 298 pp. $18.95 trade paper. index.
(religious sect; Middle Ages)
A Christian army of the Inquisition believed it was stamping out the
Cathar heresy when in 1244 it took the fortress in the Pyrenees held by 200
Cathars and burned them alive. However, as Markale shows in this extensive
historical and religious study, the Cathar beliefs continued to exert an
influence on Western culture. This French author of over 40 books on ancient
religions and religious sects traces the roots of the Cathar beliefs to the
dualism of the Persian religion Zoroastrianism; and he links the beliefs to
ancient Druidism. In delving into similarities and differences of the Cathar
spirituality with ancient religions and Christianity within a historical
context spanning centuries, Markale puts a focus on this medieval religious
sect which had an influence far beyond its small number of adherents and
geographical concentration in the region of the Pyrenees mountains bordering
France and Spain.
LITERATURE
DARK GOD OF EROS - A William Everson Reader, edited with an introduction by
Albert Gelpi. Heyday Books, Berkeley, CA; a...@heydaybooks.com. 2003. 403+xxxvii
pp. $22.95 trade paper. photographs, color illustrations, index.
(anthology; modern American literature)
Kenneth Rexroth says about William Everson, also known as Brother Antonius
when he was a Dominican monk, "he is one of the three or four most important
poets of the now notorious San Francisco school." This was a regional, or
practically local, school of California associated with the Beat writers of the
50s and 60s and the alternate culture of the 60s. Everson is perhaps the most
versatile member of this small, but influential group, among whom Robert Duncan
became the best known poet. As Rexroth also says, Everson's poetry is not for
everyone; for some, Everson's poems are "too strong a wine" with their
self-dramatizations where "everything is larger than life with a terrible
beauty and pain." Yet Everson has earned a place is the course of American
literature for being a part of an influential literary movement and for his
fine-press publications mostly of poetry and woodblocks. Pages from several of
his publications are pictured in color. The anthology also includes poems,
prose, and interviews with Everson. The editor Gelpi is a former Stanford
professor of American literature with numerous publications in this field. He
met Everson in 1962, and the two became friends. Everson died in 1994. This
voluminous anthology insures that Everson is not overlooked even though he was
overshadowed by others of his generation and temperament.
THE HIDDENNESS OF THE WORLD by Gerard Martin, translated with an Introduction
by Bertrand Mathieu. BOA Editions, Rochester, NY; www.boaeditions.org;
800-283-3572 for distributor. 2003. 57 pp. $13.95 trade paper.
(bi-lingual-English/French; collected prose poems)
In the translator's Introduction, he writes, "Martin admits that reading
Rimbaud's hauntingly mysterious prose poem 'Aube' (Dawn) was a transformative
event in his life." Mathieu has also translated Rimbaud's writing. Martin is a
French poet living in Western France. As with Rimbaud's writing, it is not
sense or meaning one looks for in Martin's short prose poems. What affects one
mostly in their tone--they give off a delicate glow, as in the part of the
piece named "Slope of the Sun" reading, "Earth, recognized in the threshold of
tall herbs, earth still dozing. The wind bears us the breath of the high
pastures...A green bush attains the edge of day...No other point of reference,
now, other than the nascent rock-face, which is summoning its body from the
very furthest away." The prose poems relate the vibrancy, but also the
elusiveness of essences.
KNOW IT BY HEART by Karl Luntta. Curbstone Press, Willimantic, CT;
www.curbstone.org; in...@curbstone.org. 2003. 336 pp. $15.95 trade paper.
(young adult novel; social issues)
The time is 1961; the place, suburban Connecticut. Not long after the the
racially-mixed couple and their children move into the mid-state neighborhood,
a cross is burned on their front lawn. And they are subjected to other threats
motivated by discrimination. The story is told from the perspective of Dub
Teed, the son of the white father and African American mother. Although his
tale brings to the surface the undercurrent of racism present even in an
affluent Northern community, it does not focus on this to the exclusion of the
good times, the friendships, the light side, and the anticipations and hopes of
adolescence. In trying to turn back the racism so his family can live in peace,
Dub and friends come to learn more about the workings of the local society and
the lives of individuals in it. The author Luntta has worked for the Peace
Corps in Africa and elsewhere. His broad experience and writing talent as
author of travel books and short fiction published in literary journals are
evident in this young-adult work which though set in a time a few decades ago,
deals realistically and instructively with the social issue of racism which has
not yet been finally tamed in American society.
A GRADUAL TWILIGHT - An Appreciation of John Haines edited by Steven B. Rogers,
with a Foreword by Dana Gioia; CavanKerry Press, Fort Lee, NJ;
www.cavankerrypress.com; cavan...@mindspring.com. 2003. 308+xvii pp. $27.00
trade paper. index. (poetry; American poet)
Critical essays with passages from Haines's poems, poems in remembrance,
interviews, and reminiscences give a picture of the poet John Haines as more
than the regional, Alaskan, poet he has often be categorized as. The range of
the writers affected by him alone supports this broader view. Raymond Carver,
William Carlos Williams, Tess Gallagher, Donald Hall, Wendell Berry, and Thomas
McGrath are among those who maintained a relationship with Haines and
contribute poems or remarks about him. Haines was born in 1924 and went to
Alaska in the 1960s. He's now near 80, and still lives in Alaska. Although his
poems have images of Alaska, as William Carlos Williams wrote to him, "You have
the gift of making your page come alive in every detail. This comes from
meticulous honesty in your reporting." The universal appeal of these rare
qualities attract readers of all generations and places to Haines. This
commemorative volume offers samplings of Haines's poetry, and is also a notable
anthology of writings on him by many leading contemporary poets and writers.
OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES / SPORTS
WATER FEATURES FOR SMALL GARDENS - From Concept to Construction by Keith
Davitt. Timber Press, Portland, OR; www.timberpress.com; ma...@timperpress.com.
2003. 174 pp. $29.95 hardcover. color photographs, bibliography, index.
(gardening; garden design)
Flowing water, a pool of water, or a fountain enhances any garden. Davitt
gives instruction on how to construct these or a combination. Photographs show
the steps for creating kinds of water features and completed ones.
Appropriateness with regard to the kind of garden, placement, building
materials, and complementary features such as statues are all covered in detail
in a clear style. Raised pools, formal and wall fountains, streams, bog gardens
(often including statues of frogs), tub gardens (using half of a wooden keg),
and waterfalls are the different types discussed. At the end is a section on
flowers and plants going along with a water feature. After learning about the
different kinds of water features and looking at the richly-colored photos of
completed ones, any garden without a water feature will seem plain and
incomplete to the avid gardener.
ORNAMENTAL TROPICAL SHRUBS by Amanda Jarrett. Pineapple Press, Sarasota, FL;
www.pineapplepress.com. 2003. 167+viii pp. $24.95 hardcover. color photographs,
bibliography, index.
(gardening; garden plants)
This "visual encyclopedia" of tropical plants arising from Jarrett's
attraction to them from when her family was living in Libya when she was a
young girl introduces the numerous varieties and provides experienced guidance
on how to grow them. The entries for each kind consist of vibrant, full-color
photographs, botanical and gardening notes, and Jarrett's comments and tips on
the plant. An appendix-like section gives the gardener an overview of all the
many plants that is helpful in planning a garden. Accent shrubs,
drought-tolerant shrubs, mature heights, and year-round flowers are some of the
28 classifications. The consistent organization and to-the-point data and
directions make for a easy-to-use reference on the wide variety of tropical
plants and handbook for planning, making, and tending a garden of them.
POETRY
EVIDENCES by James McCorkle, selected and with an Introduction by Jorie Graham.
American Poetry Review, Philadelphia, PA; www.aprweb.org; esca...@aprweb.org.
2003. 110+xv pp. $23.00 hardcover. $14.00 trade paper.
(collected poems)
McCorkle poems include a lot about destructiveness of war, ransacking of
Evil, and decay of nature. But this is not done in the spirit of doomsaying or
with a pessimism or depression. What the poet is getting at is how these leave,
or create, images, the evidences of our lives and histories. The strength,
constancy, and eternal presence of the destructiveness, etc., ensure that the
evidence they make will be fragmentary. Yet the poet finds that it is enough,
enough to give one a pulse for living. McCorkle has received fellowships from
the Ingram Merrill Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
ORIOLING by Ann Sillsbee. Red Hen Press, Granda Hills, CA; www.redhen.org;
in...@redhen.org. 2003. 87 pp. $13.95 trade paper.
(collected poems)
For Silsbee, the world is lavish, though not always welcoming. With
orioles, "song/blossoms from the stem of their being bird." [from the title
poem] One can experience this lavishness of the world by a openness and
sensitivity, and by ordinary, humble acts such as cutting open a mango or
digging for a clam. Unlike the oriole, humans have some self-consciousness even
with the openness--an individual wonders "what stalk you flower from." Yet, for
Silsbee, the self-consciousness is a dimension of the openness.
Self-consciousness is not a faculty differentiating one from the surrounding
world, but a means to share being with it.
IS by Wayne Dodd. BOA Editions, Rochester, NY; www.boaeditions.org.91 pp.
$22.00 hard cover. $13.95 trade paper.
(collected poems)
"Is"--the title--encompasses everything. The poet looks out on the world
and attributes imaginary thoughts or situations to others. In Etc.," he muses
about persons in the suburbs of Boston, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles in
recalling something he heard a woman say. Other times, he gets caught up in the
continual change without becoming undone by it. Such an outlook might be
overwhelming, but it isn't for Dodd. Such an outlook and style of imaginary,
but not false, participation in all that is is a way of being that "we...feel
ourselves enlarged/by...."-from Four Compositions Clustered Around a
Disappearing Center. Poetry with this outlook ordinarily turns cosmic or
ecstatic. The unique art of Dodd's poems is that at the heart of each poem is a
self does not become lost or distended, but is nurtured the expansive outlook.
RIFF ON SIX - New and Selected Poems by James Reiss. Salt Publishing,
Cambridge, United Kingdom; www.saltpublishing.com; in...@saltpublishing.com.
2003. 165 pp. $13.95
(collected poems)
The selected poems are from Reiss's five volumes of published poetry from
1974 to 2002. The new poems are satirical poems on the war in Iraq after 9/11
with the title A Child's Garden of Evil. In these, the line "Now that Bush has
allied us with lies" rhymes with the following one, "About how Saddam and bad
guys/[Will unleash dogs of hell]...." Another satire begins, "Off we go into
the wildest blunder [since Vietnam]...." Most readers will find this last
section of 20 or so satires most engaging for being topical and honing in on
the deceptions, overblown expectations, and stubborn realities relating to the
war. No matter what Reiss's subject, his poems have a crispness of language
from the quick pace of short words, most only one or two syllables. This
simple, no-nonsense placement of words gives the poems a jewel-like brightness.
RELIGION
CREATIVE TENSION - Essays on Science and Religion by Michael Heller. Templeton
Foundation Press, Randor, PA; www.templetonpress.org; t...@templeton.org. 2003.
183+xii pp. $22.95. footnotes, index.
(religion and science)
In the inquiring vein of Teilhard de Chardin, Heller envisions a cosmos
where there is no dichotomy between science and religion. Indeed, one his
chapters is "Tielhard's Vision of the World and Modern Cosmology." And like de
Chardin in whose footsteps he follows, Heller is a Catholic philosopher. He is
an ordained priest who is a professor of philosophy at the Pontifical Academy
of Theology in Cracow, Poland. The various approaches Heller takes in moving
about in this large, grand, endless field stem from his work with the concept
of "noncommutative geometry," a new field in which he is leading thinker.
Scientific methodology, the history of the attempt to synthesize science and
religion, creation, and metaphysics and metalanguage are among the areas of
science, theology, and philosophy Heller engages in to offer penetrating,
luminous considerations for the philosophically-minded.
THE SMALL PRESS BOOK REVIEW is posted ten times a year on the newsgroup
alt.books.reviews. Books for general readers in all categories from small
presses and independent publishers are reviewed. A companion review periodical
named UNIVERSITY PRESS BOOK REVIEW is published six times a year and posted on
the newsgroup alt.books.reviews. Review copies can be sent to P. O. Box 176,
Southport, CT 06890. Henry Berry is the Review's editor/publisher;
henry...@aol.com. He is also the author of the book FROM REVOLUTION TO FADS -
THE PROGRESS OF MODERNITY and a publishing consultant and freelance editor.