Reviews

The Mysterious Life of the HeartLawrence Olivier and Meryl Streep, often referred to as “actors” actors, are admired for their commitment to craft and technique--appreciated by those who know how difficult it is to be an actor of such quality and by those who just appreciate a good show. The Sun holds much the same place in the world of literary magazines. Sy Safranski has been publishing monthly since 1974, and in this collection of essays, poetry, and fiction he has gathered a poignant, honest, and sometimes painful look at love. A deft mix of genres and subjects, Safranski advises in his forward, “…[to]read aloud to a loved one, by candlelight, between the hours of 10 P.M. and 2 A.M. But using this book to seduce someone or to justify the unbelievably selfish way you acted last week is expressly prohibited.” Philadelphia author, Denise Gess’s essay, “The Kitchen Table: An Honest Orgy” alone is worth the price. Gess is a startling courageous writer and never lets herself off the hook. The other pieces in the collection are equally as good whether read by candlelight or not.

-Carla Spataro

Father's DayKeith Gilman’s primary character in Father’s Day is Louis Klein, PI, who “suspected that his father stayed awake because his dreams were worse than his waking memories.” That was Klein’s experience too. They had both been Philadelphia cops. His father was killed in the line of duty. His mother was murdered. His best friend, also a cop, supposedly committed suicide. Klein had pushed the limits of his badge a little too hard. He knows the politics of the police force as well as he knows the bars on every street corner. Louis Klein was likened to a rat. They don’t change, they’re not liked and “their best quality is loyalty, especially to their family.”

Father’s Day is written with hard-core believability. It has drama, tension and poignancy. Keith Gilman is also a cop. And he’s an author you’ll look forward to reading again.

--Christina Weaver, author of the memoir, What You Lose on the Roundabout

Love ParkI’ve lived here 20 years, and in my pea-brain, Philadelphia’s go-to ethnicity has always been Italian. Yes, the pale WASPs still rule the Main Line, but for me, Philadelphia is all Italian, all the time. Or it was, until I fell deeply into LOVE PARK, Jim Zervanos’ well-written, heartfelt novel about a Greek Gen-X-er’s coming of age in the era of skateboards, AIDS, bisexuality, and olive-oil-scented Mrs. Robinsons who dig boys and their dads (even when they happen to be Greek Orthodox priests.) Read it and discover a whole new flavor of Philadelphia story –one full of dolmades, not cannoli. Who knew?

---Kelly Simmons, author of Standing Still and coming soon, The Bird House.

Dope ThiefRay was in “juvie” before his sweetheart graduated high school, before she died in his stolen car. He thought he was born “in the life” and had no choices. His memories were like “reading a terrible book and not wanting to read more pages because you knew the story just got worse.” Dennis Tafoya gets his reader “in the head” of Ray, his primary low-life, so intensely that you can’t stop reading but you’re dreading its end. Dope Thief is a masterful work of modern crime fiction that softens searing brutality with glimpses of goodness and creates rich sensory description with a brief turn of phrase. The fact that Dope Thief is Tafoya’s first book is irrelevant to the reader except for the anticipation of what will follow.

--Christina Weaver, author and free-lance writer.

Between the CoversOne of the short-short stories in Between the Covers refers to “a wasabi moment.” The nine splendid authors who comprise the Radnor Writers Group delight the palate of literary taste with a shuffle of tales whose common denominator is that each is memorable and all have wasabi moments. This is a perfect anthology for those occasions when you need your attention grabbed in short spurts. Name a genre and you’ll find it Between the Covers. The Radnor Writers Group has met weekly for five years. Their content and style is as different as their backgrounds but their devotion to the craft of writing is evident and their first volume leaves the reader hungry for more from each.

-- Christina Weaver, author of the memoir What You Lose on the Roundabout

The Natural SelectionIn The Natural Selection, the second in a series of Sarah Kaufman historical mysteries, Ona Russell deftly weaves a fictitious tale of murder and intrigue with the factual Scopes 'Monkey' trial, called the Trial of the Century. Set authentically in Tennessee in the 1920's, the plot follows Sarah, a believable and appealing protagonist, as she interacts seamlessly with the story's characters as well as real participants from the trial, notably celebrated journalist H.L. Mencken.
Russell crafts a vinegar divide between science and fundamentalism, reason and racism, change and convention, and intelligence and insecurity. The fast flowing, elegant writing will hook readers; but the book is all the more fascinating, if not distressing, because it strikes close to today's social and political climate. The controversy and relevance of The Natural Selection will draw them into the time period and keep them turning pages until the end.
www.onarussell.com
- Christina Weaver

What You Lose on the Roundabout You Gain on the SwingsWhat You Lose on the Roundabout is Christina Weaver's compelling memoir detailing her diagnosis of Parkinson's and her fight to keep a sense of normalcy while her body begins to shut down. At turns funny and painful, Weaver tells her story with a no-holds bar honesty and a clear and engaging narrative voice. Combining photographs, poetry, and lucid scenes of struggle and redemption, Ms Weaver's story is one that illuminates the difficulty of overcoming illness while still maintaining a buoyant spirit of hopefulness. http://www.cgweaver.com/books.html
(Infinity Publishing, 2007)
- aimee labrie

DrownThis debut collection of short stories by the recent
Pulitzer Prize winning novelist Junot Diaz (The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao) is a sharp yet lush collection of loosely connected stories. Tracing the adolescent evolution of a young boy in Santo Domingo,
Dominican Republic to a young man in New Jersy, Diaz weaves his many stories into a single, multi-faceted narrative. Using occasional Spanglish to deepen his tales — texture, Diaz never leans on his cross-cultural references as a literary crutch. His portraits are funny, moving, and painfully human. (Riverhead Books, 1996)- Ryan Romine

What is the Whatthe story of Valentino Achak Deng, a 'Lost Boy' of Sudan who trekked from his native village after it was attacked through desert to refugee camps in Ethiopia and Kenya. He was later granted political asylum in the US. Part adventure story, part heart- breaking saga, this novel will become an American epic. It was chosen as the One Book, One Philadelphia 2008 selection and recently educated the entire city regarding the conflicts in Southern and Northern Sudan. To read the stories of local Sudanese, written as part of a Drexel University collaboration with One Book, go to www.valentinoachakdeng.org. (Vintage; Reprint edition, 2007)- Harriet Levin Millan

Though Aleksandr Skidan has been publishing for years in Russia, "Red Shifting" is his first collection of poetry to be translated into English. Skidan has become fluent in American culture, and has carefully splayed it out in his poems. He deals with the subjects of censorship, displacement, and language with an unsettling ease, digs into himself and into his reader with abandon and uncovers things most of us would rather keep buried. Skidan's vocabulary of allusions requires many visits before it yields to the reader; his pieces alternate between a stark clarity and a calm aloofness that have few equals in their level of challenge. (Red Shifting, Ugly Duckling Press).- Blythe Boyer