Creative variations on a theme that often makes for vibrant reading.
Editor Litchfield presents a collection of work from the literary magazine Lowestoft Chronicle, loosely centered on “humorous writing with an emphasis on travel.”
The latest in a series presents 32 pieces with settings that range from Africa to Asia to North America, with many stops along the way. The collection is evenly split between poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction, with three interviews with authors added for background. Outside of the table of contents, the book makes no effort to distinguish when a piece is fiction or not, although with the poems this is generally self-evident, as with Mark Jacobs’ quasi-dystopian story “After the Meltdown, On the Hunt” or the slight surrealism of Mary Donaldson-Evans’ “Bulkhead Seat.” (Both authors receive in-depth Lowestoft Chronicle interviews.) In other cases, readers may find themselves having difficulty suspending disbelief, as when traveling along the knife’s edge between absurdity and danger in Jeff Alphin’s nonfiction piece “Family Circus,” about a bizarre lottery-commercial shoot. Still, with all the blurring of lines, this collection delivers a certain uniformity in tone; some readers might have preferred an earthier, less erudite approach to the material. Still, despite the stated preference for humorous writing, readers will find that not every tale falls cleanly into that category. For example, interview subject Robert Wexelblatt’s fiction piece “Lost City” leaves little room for laughter. The story, which starts as a chronicle of former college buddies seeking a “vacation adventure to take us away from our humdrum lives,” involves a trip along a minor trade route in Central Asia; along the way, the story takes an intense detour into a haunting chapter of regional history. Similarly, the authors of stories such as “Singapura” use tales of human foibles and flaws to venture into shadowy, if not pitch-dark, places.
Creative variations on a theme that often makes for vibrant reading.Pub Date: March 30, 2024
ISBN: 978-1732332836
Page Count: 250
Publisher: Lowestoft Chronicle Press
Review Posted Online: March 21, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2024
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A host of well-drawn characters and a mass of historical detail make this 12th-century adventure entertaining despite its...
In all of Southwark, there's no more skilled saddlemaker than Master Mainard, married to shrewish Bertrild but deeply in love with Sabina, the blind whore who lives in the Old Priory Guesthouse, a brothel run by beautiful Magdalene la Bâtarde (A Mortal Bane, 1999). Mainard has installed Sabina in his home, but it seems to all the better part of discretion for Sabina to return to the Guesthouse after Bertrild is found stabbed to death in the back yard. Ensconced in the Old Priory, Sir Bellamy of Itchen (commonly called Bell), an emissary of the Bishop of Winchester and Magdalene's besotted admirer, is attempting to find Bertrild's killer. At length Bell reduces the list of likely suspects to the five men who ply their trade in the area of Mainard's workshop, from which the murder weapon had been stolen. But Bell's investigation is further complicated by the news that Bertrild had been doing a thriving business in blackmail; by a second killing; and by the arrival of Bertrild's uncle Sir Druerie, with his own decided ideas about the murderer's identity.
A host of well-drawn characters and a mass of historical detail make this 12th-century adventure entertaining despite its hopelessly confusing mishmash of a plot.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-312-86998-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Forge
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Distinguished by a keen sense of period detail and sharp pacing: Geary serves his subject with dignity and grace.
The author/illustrator of Jack the Ripper (1995) continues to focus on Victorian crime in this latest historical comic, part of a series on 19th-century murder, based on a true-life story so compelling it inspired a short story by Edgar Allan Poe. While Poe was intrigued by the philosophy of detection in the case, Geary’s apparent interest lies in its revelations about urban lowlife of mid–19th-century New York City. His thick-lined black-and-white narrative, with its loose, curvy edges and distinctive bulbous lettering, well suits this historical curiosity. Geary’s well-researched book recounts the mysterious death of Mary Rogers, a young single woman who lived with her mother near present-day City Hall. When her corpse washed up on the western side of the Hudson River, many journalists became fascinated by the possible reasons for her fate. Was she an innocent, brutally murdered by one of the boarders at her mother’s house? Was she killed by a jealous lover or by one of the many male admirers who patronized the tobacco store where she worked? Or was it a botched abortion? These questions captured the imagination of the contemporary public and press because, in Geary’s view, Mary’s story was a powerful cautionary tale of emerging city life, which the artist illuminates in many sidebar historical drawings. Unsolved in part because of the period’s inadequate forensic techniques, the story becomes “a testament to the unknown and unknowable,” and Geary’s visual airiness perfectly captures the mysteriousness at its core. This is certainly a far cry from his early work for National Lampoon and Heavy Metal.
Distinguished by a keen sense of period detail and sharp pacing: Geary serves his subject with dignity and grace.Pub Date: May 1, 2001
ISBN: 1-56163-274-0
Page Count: 80
Publisher: NBM
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2001
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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