As a playscript, the body of Crux is its dialogue, split between the hallucinatory discourse of Sand’s fellow activists and the people around him in the prison. Each character’s personality feels natural, with a nuanced approach to their thoughts that keeps their perspective distinct from one another.
Category: Book Reviews
Book Reviews
A review of Abider by Melissa Crowe
So, speaking of words, why the title of Abider? When I see that word I always think of that movie with Jeff Bridges, The Big Lebowski, and the phrase it made popular, “The dude abides.” He accepts life as it comes at him. He endures. You intuit something of that attitude in Melissa Crowe.
A review of Rupture Anthem by Hera Naguib
The poems in Rupture Anthem chronicle one woman’s quest for personal independence in the face of so many obstacles. The daughter of Pakistani foreign workers in Saudi Arabia, she experiences both sexual repression from strict patriarchal Islamic clerics, in educational settings, and the exploitation of migrant workers that her family endures.
Trapped Sentences: A review of Freak Lip: Essays of the Unsaid by Julia Cohen
A meditation on embodiment, desire, and the ineffability of language, Cohen braids scenic vignettes, text message transcripts, and literary theory with mesmerizing sensuality. She parses her insecurities covertly in iPhone transcripts where she narrates existential feelings, attachments, her own favorite body parts, and her dislike (the word “dick” is used) of Jonathan Franzen.
A review of Shelf Life by Hemat Malak
Shelf Life is a finely written book, so polished and confident in its voice that it’s difficult to believe it’s Hemat Malak’s first collection. The work balances a self-reflection that feels very human and open with a wry expansiveness that isn’t afraid to laugh, cry, or reinvent itself.
A review of Curious Events Lately Occurring In This Neighbourhood by Tom Cox
The author’s name is new to me, I am surprised to admit, because Cox’s goofy, solipsistic clowning short stories (some no more than a paragraph) are so captivating. You are guaranteed to read and giggle or skim and smile. At least a number of celebrated writers who have read Cox have done just that.
A review of Mine by Adam Ouston
There are several narrative threads and poetic refrains that twist in and out of the narrative as we move through the arc of this unnamed mind in the mine. Sometimes he is pragmatic and precise, working through his dilemma in logical steps, and sometimes he’s feverish and wild. I found the writing and the way in which it traveled through time and space, history, trauma, love and loss to be haunting and yet surprisingly compelling.
The Zingers of Adam Sedia and the Voice of Ancient Egypt: 3 books by Adam Sedia
Sedia has the unique gift of employing what I call “Zingers”— a combination or interplay or juxtaposition of words which are so unique and unusual (and unusually good) that they just pop out at you. Not only is Sedia a careful, measured poet with extremely fine and precise diction, but he manages to combine commonly-used words in uncommon ways in addition to the “Zingers”, which elevate his writing to a whole new level.
A review of The Book of the After by Rebecca Higgie
I won’t give anything away here other than to say that The Book of the After is most certainly an epic, as beautiful and grand as Otto, the 24-metre blue whale skeleton from the Boola Bardip museum in Perth who features so prominently in this story.
A review of Man Overboard by Kathleen Rooney
And perhaps most delightful, with her humor and clever word play, we could never mistake Kathleen Rooney for any other writer. Man Overboard sparkles. As Rooney’s Kick makes observations about his dilemma, we are treated to a glistening stream of consciousness as he riffs, with bitterness or resolve, on his stamina, his estranged mother, annoying brother-in-law, patient girlfriend and more.