Award-Winning Poet takes on Kafka

Kafka's Shadlow

Author: Judith Skillman

Published by Deerbrook Editions, Cumberland, Maine

77 pages, paperback, (c) 2017

$16.95

ISBN: 978-0-9975051-4-6

Available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Kafkas-Shadow-Judith-Skillman/dp/09

Reviewed by Carol Smallwood originally for Compulsive Reader

A contemporary American woman poet takes on an awesome task when writing about a male fiction writer in another era (1883-1924) composing in German in what is now the Czech Republic. Judith Skillman, the recipient of an Academy of American Poets and included in Best Indie Verse of New England is to be commended for this unique collection. 

Kafka had a few works published in his life, yet his influence spreads beyond literature to philosophy--his charters meeting bizarre circumstances, alienation, and absurdity. The title of the poetry collections comes from one of Kafka's letters and is also the title of one of the the poems.

Poems such as “Dearest” and “Felice Ponders” employ the point of view of the woman who wants to be his wife, though Kafka never marries. Skillman uses details like bulgur wheat, her stiff collar, and a train ride from Prague to Berlin to portray the couple’s relationship and culture. “Tuberculosis,” which ends his life at 40, is written from Kafka’s point of view, with borscht soup waiting to cool, his father sleeping in a chair, and the image “fat pigeons sun themselves in winter light.”

There are several poems examining the relationship of Kafka and his father through Biblical allusions, most notably the story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac. Kafka’s character and his world reveal themselves not unlike layers of an onion. We feel we know them better with each poem. Three pages of notes at the end of the collection include details such as the word “pater” means father, as well as background quotes from Kafka’s many letters.

It takes a lot of craftsmanship to have readers get inside the personalities and the culture of the characters in poems based on scholarship and detailed research—a huge task; all of the poems stick to the topic of Kafka and explore aspects of his family and his times. The last of the 47 free verse poems, “Kafka’s Nocturne,” uses revealing lines in its penultimate stanza: “Rumination and obsession—/guests who sit on the bed he won’t occupy/ with a lover….”

MORE ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Carol Smallwood is a multi-Pushcart nominee. Her  In Hubble’s Shadow (Shanti Arts, 2017) is her 4th poetry collection. Her Women on Poetry: Writing, Revising, Publishing and Teaching (McFarland) is on Poets & Writers Magazine's list of Best Books for Writers.

MORE ABOUT THIS BLOG

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ). This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Publisher Recommends Frugal Promoter to Contest Entrants, Those Seeking Publisher

Nov. 6, 2007 -- Jared D. Vineyard, publisher for J. D. Vine Publications and Editor of The Creative Writer, an anthology of winning stories, recommended the Frugal Editor on his blog today. He says, "If you want to be a professional writer, your work must be of a professional caliber. The Frugal Editor by Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a book that could help writers of all skill levels increase the professionalism of their copy. Reading and using the techniques in this book could make the difference of not being accepted for publication in the Creative Writer or becoming the series next Featured Author."

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Stop by Jared blog and feel free to leave a comment.

The Frugal Editor is Best Book in USA Book News writing and publication category.

Rogue Novel by Jo Beverley Anyone?

Lady Beware
By Jo Beverley
Historical romance
ISBN 978-0-451-22149-0
Signet, $ 7.99, PG-13
5 hearts

Reviewed by Mary Benn for the Romance Reader


Jo Beverley carries off a remarkable achievement in Lady Beware, the latest and
possibly last in her Company of Rogue novels. In a world where the loud, the
graphic and the sensational sell, she cultivates a silent and subtle build-up
but rocks her readers to their core. Her craft deserves close attention, but it
is the unusual combination of familial comfort and risqué pleasure that makes
this book a winner.

Horatio Cave, Lord Darien attended Eton at the same time as the Rogues, but he
was not admitted into their exulted company. His violent and scandalous family
history, which includes murder, madness and Italian opera singers, had already
branded him. His belligerent behavior didn't help. Even good-natured Dare (the
opium-addicted hero of To Rescue a Rogue) took issue and warned, "Cave Canem."
Well versed in Latin, the Eton schoolboys immediately recognized the pun (the
inscription cave canem, or "Beware the Dog", was carved on the doors of Roman
homes). The name stuck, and Cave has never forgiven Dare or the Rogues for it.


In the meantime, Cave has made a very different name for himself as a hero of
the Napoleonic wars. His bravery isn't enough to whitewash his family name. So
when Dare's honor in the battlefield is questioned, he sees it as an
opportunity to redeem himself. He coerces Dare's sister Thea Debenham into
accepting a bargain: if she acts as his betrothed, thereby gaining him the
social respect he craves, he will clear her brother's reputation.

It is easy to see what this set up could have become: a predictable story about
a false engagement that eventually becomes a real one. That is not the path
Thea and Cave take. He immediately does his part but allows Thea to withdraw
from hers. Her mother, on the other hand, is determined to pay off the family
debt . More naturally cautious, Thea remains wary of this dark, dangerous
stranger, but she is also intrigued — and secretly thrilled.

Beverley brings her characters to life by examining them in their social
universe. A former soldier, Cave is very much a man's man, and it is mostly
through his interaction with other men that we discover his loyalty and
decency. He deploys all the authority which goes with his rank, but never
abuses it: there is no condescension or false camaraderie in his concern for
his former soldiers. Similarly, Thea's unspoken anxieties and elegant poise are
seen most clearly in her family relationships and her female friendships.

Beverley ensures her characters are multifaceted and doesn't overlook the
erotic dimension of Thea and Cave's relationship. She pens several daring
encounters, but overall subtlety is the key to her art. In one scene, Cave
strokes Thea's gloved finger with his. There is more sensual tension in that
caress than in some of the most explicit descriptions I have recently read.

Throughout the novel, Beverley sets her own leisurely pace and draws her
enraptured readers towards a firework finale. Ominous hints maintain the
novel's tension and the reader's curiosity. The bad things come as no surprise
but still hold us at a fever pitch.

No doubt about it: Lady Beware is yet another jewel in Beverley's heavily-
decorated crown.

-----
Jo Beverley "Arguably today's most skillful writer of historical
romance..." Publishers Weekly
5 time winner of the prestigious RITA award.
"Romance at its best." Romantic Times.

History and A Great Story Rolled Into One

In the Shadow of Suribachi
By Joyce Faulkner
Red Engine Press
Trade Paperback
ISBN: 9780974565202
Adult/Creative Nonfiction
Author's Site: http://home.comcast.net/~joycefaulkner/suribachi.htm
Contact Reviewer: HojoNews@aol.com
Rating: 5 of 5








Emerging Author Joyce Faulkner
Designs New Kind of Literature

If reviewing were a different sort of animal I could probably pen three lines of 17 syllables, wind up with haiku that would remain with the reader and call it day. I could describe In the Shadow of Suribachi by Joyce Faulkner with words like "heartfelt, consummate skill, emotional and bloody," fool a bit with the caesuras and stresses and--perhaps--give readers a better sense of the soul of the book.

Having said that, there is more to this work than its essence and prose will work better to explain that. Here the author assembles disparate events like the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane in Islmorada, Fl, the infamous kristallnacht, the 1942 circus fire in Cleveland. Each real-life event is told from the point of view of a character and may--at first--feel as if they are separate stories. If the reader listens carefully, however, she will hear the intimations in each of how these young men's futures will connect, how what has gone before will affect them later as Marines fighting and suffering in Iwo Jima in 1945.

This book is neither beast nor fowl. The stories (and story) are based on interviews and careful research so it is nonfiction. They are told with all the craft of a fiction writer; that makes it creative nonfiction. They are assembled in a way that would qualify it as a literary novel. A literary novel, after all, tells of the human condition. Characters in literary novels must be carefully drawn and readers should draw something from one that lives long after the last page is turned. This book, published by a new traditional press called the Red Engine Press, qualifies.
Readers should know that, though they may well be mesmerized by this story (stories), it is not easy reading. Endorsed by professionals from the Army's 101st Airborne Division to history teachers, it captures what Lt. Col. Dave Grossman calls "the reality of human aggression and combat." This is a time when we, as a nation, need to fully understand what we are sending our young men and women to do. To understand it may behoove us to visit--or revisit--Suribachi.

It won a Military Writers' Society of America gold meda.
------------
Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s first novel, This is the Place, has won eight awards. Harkening, a collection of stories, has won three and her how-to book for authors, THE FRUGAL BOOK PROMOTER: HOW TO DO WHAT YOUR PUBLISHER WON'T, is USA Book News' "Best Professional Book 2004." Her new chapbook of poetry, Tracings, to be includes her own childhood memories of WWII. It is also a Militar Writers' Society Award-Winner. She wrote a foreword for another Support Our Troops, published by Andrews McMeel. Learn more about her at: http://carolynhoward-johnson.com or www.HowToDoItFrugally.com.)