A review of Inga Muscio’s Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil: My Life and Times in a Racist, Imperialist Society. Kathi Acker’s, \”I was unspeakable, so I ran into the language of others,\” takes on new meaning when I think about stealing, borrowing, and remaking into my own what this author has put forth. Now that Blue-Eyed Devil has been reprinted for us to pass down to our children and adolescents, who I believe to be the true target audience for her urgent and ironic voice, Inga is planning on taking our breath away by writing fiction.
Browsing Category Reviews
The Wrath of God
A reprint of The Stories of Breece D’J Pancake was released in 2002 with an additional afterward by House of Sand and Fog author Andre Dubus III, who claims Pancake as a great influence. Additionally, the University of Tennessee Press put out A Room Forever: The Life, Work, Letters Of Breece D’J Pancake, by Thomas E. Douglas in 2004.
How to Kiss Upside Down
“A professor told me not to use that letter / as the subject of a poem. // I don’t remember her name.” This complete poem, entitled “I,” is a snide argument for the insistent confessionalism that goes on in much of Poetic Scientifica, a confessionalism that is unwavering and brimming with warped comedy. Out this year from University of Hell Press, Leah Noble Davidson’s first book is a bold declaration on the capacities of humor and raw storytelling as means for emotional resilience.
Lightning Strikes Twice
The book began as a project to downsize the story of Job. Then Russell got the idea to do the same for all the remaining books of The Bible. He spent two years researching and rereading The Bible, cover to cover for what would become God is Disappointed in You.
Can’t Look Away
Kevin Sampsell’s novel, This is Between Us, places the reader into the role of a voyeur, sneaking long glances into the secret lives of two divorcees who fall in love in the weirdest ways. Sampsell’s work could easily be mistaken for memoir, as the book mimics journal entries written by the male partner, writing to his female counter-part, and addressing her only as “You.”