Trollpocket#3

Reviewed by Christopher Robin

/ $ or trade

Christian Walker 9903 Santa Monica Blvd#245 Beverly Hills, CA 90212

Christian shares personal reflections on religion, war, and politics. But not in the least bit heavy handed. Simply his (I don’t know the gender of the author, even though I have read several issues), own philosophies and confusion as he goes about his life. Also included are surf reports which I thought would not be interesting, but they definitely were, as they were about his local environment and how they affect his actions, and the ways he tries to improve himself. A great read.

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A Review of a Review - The Feathertale Review, issue 2.

Reviewed by: Leopold McGinnis

$10 Canadian

Available at www.feathertale.com and at bookstores somewhere...

For a magazine that has been 'publishing satire since the beginning of time', as the back of their slick rag says, they're kind of slow about it: The Feathertale Review has only just released their second issue. But their philosophy must be quality over quantity as, apparently thousands (millions?) of years in the making, it's pretty damn good. Maybe not eons-of-effort good, but if you consider that the editorial board for the first several millions years would have been protozoan slime and cavemen, then I think we can disregard the timeliness issue.

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The Incredible Adam Spark

Author: Alan Bissett

Publisher: Headline Book Publishing 310 pp  7.99 pounds

Reviewed by: Beatrice Watson

First of all I had to read this book a couple of times, and then some more, to get the gist of it because it is written in Scottish vernacular. However, it was a delightful read once I got the rhythm of it.  The main character, Sparky is lovable, and the setting interesting--the story is set in a place called Falkirk, where the annual Falkirk festival (what else would it be called?) is taking place.  Sparky is there with his older sister, Judy, and suddenly it seems as if he is in another world.

You are drawn into his world very easily and with much clarity.  The writer is excellent at painting pictures with words.  That was quite a treat. One could imagine what Sparky was all about and could even predict what he will be doing from time to time as one reads the passages.  For example, here is the description when Sparky is taken to the hospital because of an accident:

Ambyoolance well it hauls me off to falkirk royal infirmary, nee naw nee naw, nee naw. July sittin there shakin her head saying adam what were you  thinking about?  Runin ontay the park with all them guys chargin round?

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Lounge Lizard

Just yesterday I received a book in the post, a book by the great American writer Mark SaFranko.  On opening the parcel I was suddenly as excited as a seven year-old on Christmas day.  Lounge Lizard is the sequel to the wonderful Hating Olivia, a book which has gained a dedicated cult following, and gained an almost mythic status amongst the literary underground intelligentsia. I read hating Olivia last year or maybe the year before and it blew me away. The writing was like a fluid rock band, tight, powerful, and packed with emotion, the prose style similar to some of my favourite writers, Fante, Hamsun, Celine, Bukowski, etc.

But although I detected some obvious literary influences, the distinct voice of Safranko sung out loud and proud and true. And what’s more unlike all those long dead authors, Mark Safranko was alive and kicking and still writing. After reading Hating Olivia I was hungry for more works by Safranko, but inexplicably, I could find nothing but a couple of short stories, and several references to unpublished works.

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Family Blog review by Leopold McGinnis

by Clary Antome

2007

ISBN: 9781419675805

Reviewed by: Leopold McGinnis

Who says families don't talk about their problems?

This is the basic premise behind Clary Antome's hilariously cynical debut novel: the blandly but perfectly titled Family Blog. Family Blog follows a family of three daughters and their two parents, who, in this technophilic new society, have all decided to start up their own online journals without anyone else knowing. What do they talk about? Why, each other, of course! And through this expose their own shame, self-lies, conceits and dreams. And that's where the fun comes in. In fact, that's where the whole novel comes in, as this is the premise that carries all 330 pages of this family drama.

Though about a year of blog updates we follow family D. (the last name is kept obscure by everyone, presumably so the others won't find their blogs), as all their dirty laundry is aired (in secret) to us who have the pleasure of reading all their blogs:

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The Kite Runner by Khaled Husseini

Reviewed by: krishna bhatt

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The Afghan's culture of the time just before it was occupied by USSR is richly described in the book. It reveals the cruelty and violence prevalent in the society, against the weaker sex and the minority hazara community, which is perhaps Shia sect, though the life looks peaceful to the main character, living a protected life in the -what could be said to be- the upper middle class of the city. But life begins to change as the hidden conflict in the society escalates and the USSR troops occupy the nation facing a stiff resistance from the people of it. While the ones with a wherewithal and connections leave through Pakistan. The truck drivers extort big money from these fleeing people, while a Russian troop could not rape the wife of a refugee, while the father of the main character intervenes to his dismay to protect the honour of a lady; and the soldier’s officer, later, apologizing for the incident. A refugee commits suicide as soon he lands into Pakistan after the difficult journey, and the anguish and humiliation.

In spite of discovering his sense of irony in his writing that is so essential for an aspiring writer - in his school days, at home, with the help of one of the friend of his father, as he finds his father indifferent to his feelings though he throws lavish parties to celebrate his birthdays, and takes him around in the city Kabul, as he lost his mother while he was very young - the chief protagonist has failed to explore circumstances that the safer world like the USA too is created and maintained by people, to which he would run away in his childhood along with his father, from the turmoil at his home; and be educated enough to write the stories that the world would read and appreciate.

The Book amply displays the turmoil and violence in the societies in Afghanistan or in Pakistan, and the destruction the years of civil war has wreaked in Afghanistan. The sensitive way the story has been told may leave a reader choking with emotions. Though the author has acted in a politically correct way by not exploring the political dimension of the tragedy that is the life of the main protagonist, which appears to be at a fault to have been a victim. Being a hero he bears every indignity and tyranny with grace and style. He almost appears like a paragon of virtues, ironically.

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CRUDE RED BOAT

By: Ralph Murre

Cross+Roads Press

P.O. Box 33

Ellison Bay, WI 54210

Price: $10.00 / 72 pages / 50 Poems

ISBN 1-889460-18-4

Review By: Charles P. Ries

It always surprises me when I read a new book of poetry by a writer I've read and enjoyed in various journals and discover it is their first book. “How could this be?” I wonder when the writer has such talent. “Crude Red Boat” by Ralph Murre is published by the venerated Norb Blei’s Cross + Roads Press. It is a wonderful coming out party for a writer who began to write poetry just a few years ago.

Murre uses plain spoken language in this collection of fifty-three poems, and the subjects of his musings are also common as noted by a few of the titles from this collection, “Rock”, “My Room”, “Gust”, and “Neighbor”. These poems are so immediate they made me feel like I was sitting across the table from Ralph having coffee.

Indeed, he is the coffee counter philosopher in “A Good Reed”: “we are   those of us who survive / slender reed / bending with each passing wave / changing with the tide    yet unchanged / as the ocean is unchanged / by each reed on it shore”.  And