Tag Archives: reviews

Apostle Rising, by Richard Godwin

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Apostle Rising, by Richard Godwin, published by Black Jackal Books. Reviewed for Full Of Crow by Elynn Alexander.

In his first novel Apostle Rising, Richard Godwin emerges as a writer willing to take risks because of his confidence in the reader. He understands that on one level we want to be passively entertained, and that is what sells in a market dominated by vampire clone stories and the prattle of politicians-gone -celebrity. The rubric for success seems to include attention-getting crossover and repetition, feeding the appetite  of the consumer for familiarity and predictability. In putting out a genre work- Godwin is responsive to this. Called both “police procedural” and a “psychological thriller”, there is certainly a niche market in mind. But one characteristic of a good novel is the ability to resonate with others, particularly those who don’t tend to frequent those sections in the book store, a sort of “universality” about the book’s appeal. Continue reading →

This Reality Of Man, by Michael Aaron Casares

 
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“This Reality Of Man”, poetry by Michael Aaron Casares, published by Lizard’s Tale press, 2010. Reviewed by Elynn Alexander for Full of Crow.

Michael Aaron Casares takes a candid look at humanity, as an observer at times, at other times a participant. He asks us how we spend our time, what we are entitled to, what it means to live with authenticity, to be a “citizen” with responsibilities, to touch down inside our own lives in the context of the “mad swirl”. We live in a vast unknowable, without any sense of how these pieces fit together. Continue reading →

Twenty Stories, Kristin Fouquet

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Richard Godwin reviews “Twenty Stories” by Kristin Fouquet.

What immediately struck me as soon as I started reading these excellent stories, is that Kristin Fouquet inhabits the European tradition of literature.

She uses detailed and concise description which she has mastered to an unusual degree to conjure characters quickly from the page and render a narrative with immediate impact.
There is heartache here and humour, there is tragedy and insight.

From the brilliant opening story ‘The Dead Redhead’, which has the courage to remain equivocal, through the excellent ‘The Kitchen’, the reader gets an immediate sense of the author’s playful eroticism and control of words. Continue reading →

“Watching The Windows Sleep”, Tantra Bensko

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Lynn Alexander for Full Of Crow on “Watching The Windows Sleep”, a chapbook produced by Naissance, written by Tantra Bensko.  A review by Spencer Dew appeared in decomp in January as well and you can check that out here. Find out more on Tantra Bensko at her website and at Naissance Press: Official Tantra Bensko Web Site and the Official Naissance Chapbooks Web Site.

“Whimsical ridiculous meets explorations of consciousness.” Bensko is known for her experimental poetry and fiction, work that is strange and surrealist. It seems fitting that she begins this chapbook with the poem “Non Containers”, as this is not a collection that can be easily defined, a mix of poetry and fiction that tantalizes the imagination: Continue reading →

Rummaging In The Attic, by Constance Stadler

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Rummaging In The Attic is a collection of poetry by Constance Stadler, produced by Differentia Press in 2010. (Read It Online Here)

Constance Stadler takes us through a mindscape, the attic housing of the seemingly disparate in context and chronology, at times rendered mute and others- in the words of Rich Follett- buoyant, ebullient. The attic holds hope in the face of gracious resignation, the poet both grieves and reaches. Continue reading →

Noise Difficulty Flower, by J.D. Nelson

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Noise Difficulty Flower, produced for download by Argotist Ebooks, written by J.D. Nelson. Discussed For Full Of Crow by Elynn Alexander. 

Who knows how long I have been interested in J.D. Nelson’s work, or how I first came across it. As a prolific poet, widely published, one is bound to run into him somewhere, in the usual places. But J.D. Nelson is not the “usual”. What he does is a different kind of poetry. You are amused, challenged, entertained, and you will be transported back to whatever it was that made you love the things you loved before life made the argument for “maturity”. Nelson is playful, but twisted. That said, Nelson doesn’t shy away from serious things, he just presents them right alongside. His poetry is a liberated strange. Continue reading →

The Gathered Bones, by Michael McAloran

 
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The Gathered Bones, Poetry by Michael  Mc Aloran, Calliope Nerve Media. 

This review is special to us at Full Of Crow because of the loss of the publisher -our friend, Matthew Evelsizer AKA Nobius Black. 

“Michael McAloran sets inner demons to words. He is an artist of sense, a tamer of Muse.” — Nobius Black.

The Gathered Bones represents the latest collection of poetry by the prolific Michael Mc Aloran in ongoing partnership with Calliope Nerve Media- where Mc Aloran is hardly a stranger.

It opens with the following quote by Georges Bataille: “He who is damned bites at the sky…” Continue reading →

Healing, Optimism, And Polarization, by Jennifer C. Wolfe

 
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Healing, Optimism, And Polarization: A Collection Of Political Poetry Musings By Jennifer C. Wolfe, published by Blaze VOX Books. Reviewed for Crow Reviews by Lynn Alexander.

Jennifer C. Wolfe has put together a collection of poetry that explores the political mindscape of America on the cusp of the post-Bush age. There’s no doubt that we, in America, had high hopes for change with the election of President Obama- many of us want so badly to see change on so many levels and we have come to recognize that we need a certain kind of inspiring leadership to get there. Even the cynical and disenfranchised by choice share a strong sense that there has to be a change in course because what we have been doing has not been working and is now dangerously unsustainable. Is Obama the change? Who knows. At the time of writing these poems it is certainly too soon to tell.

Hope, optimism, unity…these are difficult ideas to tackle, because the diversity that makes us strong is also the diversity that fosters pluralist animosity that renders reconciliation so elusive. Wolfe aims to touch on the dynamics of competing interests, and the nature of polarization in a society where groups tend to compete before they cooperate on mutual goals and opportunities and where divisive strategies seem to rally citizens and garner support and even rouse the apathetic. Can we heal? Can we come together, find common ground? Is it absurd to hope for change, are we that far gone? Continue reading →

"A White Girl Lynching" by Elizabeth P. Glixman

 
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Cover, A White Girl Lynching“A White Girl Lynching” by Elizabeth P. Glixman is an offering from Pudding House, an independent publisher of poetry with a reputation for selecting manuscripts from poets who “do right” by their art, meaning poets who give dutiful consideration to the process in terms of poetry as craft. Glixman’s commitment is apparent in this chapbook, as she accomplishes what she set out to do: explore “our ‘feeling’ natures as symbolized by poetry”.

In particular, Glixman looks at human dignity, and how the affirmation of dignity relates to her hopes for a more just and united world where people are better able to coexist peacefully mindful of the validity and benefit of our differences. When Glixman speaks of “lynching” she is no doubt aware of the historical context of the word and it’s connection to violence, persecution, violation. She seems to have chosen the word to suggest in a very powerful and forthright way that lynching is both a physical act and a social act, whereby people are stripped of an “important element of individual dignity”.(Preface,Glixman) Continue reading →

"(Neocom)muter",Paul Corman-Roberts

 
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Neocom(muter) is the newest book of poetry by Paul Corman-Roberts, published by Tainted Coffee Press. (2009) The cover art by Andrew Lander is really the first thing that will grab you about this book: the figure on the front is confronting you, stopping you dead in your tracks. You’re being urged to take pause: Just Stop. Step away from the treadmill, life is happening while we are too busy living, as they say. And to me, that is what Corman-Roberts is talking about here but he takes it a step further. We’re not just “commuters” moving back and forth in the business of living, we are becoming so consumed with the process that we are almost detatching, not fully participating. The new kind of commuter is living to serve the rat race, not participating in the rat race so he may live. It is this difference that Corman-Roberts seems to explore, here and there in his work, but quite directly in this collection.

Cover of (neocom)muter, Andrew Lander

Cover of (neocom)muter, Andrew Lander

What’s Corman-Roberts doing here? What is he setting you up for, confronting you with?

Everything. He’s packed the world into the trunk of the Corolla, a mix of things- some pretty heavy baggage. It starts off with damage: “charred satellites”, near-misses, the fallout from choices, being products of the past.

“Beach Secrets” was a strange choice for me, in it’s placement as the second poem. It seems like a departure, with it’s ocean smell radiating like radio waves from some epicenter on the shore. The untreated sewage in the face of such a calibrated society- is he reminding us that there are still organic elements, byproducts of living, that have the power to come back at us? There’s something in the organic that often refuses to be denied, from the septic to the decomposing, life remains a part of life for the commuter. Like the figure on the cover, it will confront you on the platform. You can run, travel arrogant on your rails, but you can’t hide from truths like mortality, like stench, like “dried blood”, bitterness, like the pets that make a mess of the morning commute. (continued) Continue reading →