Scholarship, Poetry, Analysis, Literature

The most amazing thing about “The Hudson Review” is its variety.  The summer edition includes social commentary, like the chatty letter from Paris, and historical inquiry, like the lively consideration of the works of John Adams.  There are several book reviews of scholarly texts about literature: one, for example, about New English poetry, another about the language of the Bible, and a third about the poetry of Andrew Marvell.  Included as well are vigorously written critical essays pertaining to art exhibits and dance shows.  You will  find also a description of the protocol for an art song performance and then a critique of particular art song recitals.  There is an original short story, translations of two short stories, translations of poetry and original poetry.  The cupboard is full.

Joan Murray’s short story, “Niagara Street”,  is my top pick.  It’s a first person narrative  told from the point of view of a raunchy resident of  a VA hospital and I enjoyed the story because of the novelty of the internal dialogue.   The down and out fellow who tells the story has spent his entire life a couple of miles from Niagara Falls but never got to see it.  He reminisces about his aborted trips to the great Falls and reflects on a lifetime  of  missed opportunities. Niagara Falls, he says, with sweet sadness, ‘it’s been the biggest thing in my life, even bigger than God--who I never saw either”. 

Richard Pevear translated  two short stories,  “The Pearl Necklace”, and “A Flaming Patriot” by the nineteenth century Russian author, Nikolai Leskov . I found “The Pearl Necklace”  the more charming. It has more huggable characters than you could imagine. The father-in-law who gives his daughter a false set of pearls as a wedding gift becomes a good character because he eventually owns to his deception.  The sincere son-in-law is consistently noble because he simply wants to marry Mashenka and doesn’t  care a hoot about his father-in-law’s wedding  gift whatever its value.  Mashenka, the bride, simply wants to share with her sisters whatever is given to her. “The Pearl Necklace”, they say, is a Christmas story because it has a happy ending.  I say it is a sentimental story which reads like a children’s fairy tale, in the best sense.

The poems, “Rose” and “Buenos Aires”, by Jean Luis Borges are translated from the Spanish by Emily Grozholz.  A Borges theme regarding the nature of reality and unreality is carried by the translation where we read of the rose,  Always the rose of roses/The ageless Platonic flower.

Timothy Murphy’s poem, “Alan’s Ashes”, takes ironic distance on the death of a friend:

I feared the US postal Service lost
your ashes which arrived here just today,
eleven days via “Priority Mail”.

Lorna Blake’s  translations , “Sketches of Lorca” have a rich and somber mood.

In Sydney Lea’s poem, “ Floaters and Flashers” enjambed lines throw energy into a narrative of a manic old man busting his gut as a kayak paddler  as he chooses to be stirred by the osprey rather than slowed by floaters and flashers and the possibility of later cataract surgery.

“Snakeskin” by Stephen Behrendt,  is an intense look at  “the paper-thin curling sheath, the”scale-scored”  wrapper,  of that slithering body which was the “silent hint of all that moves unseen”.  Here I most especially enjoyed the winding flow from one line of the poem to the next, not unlike the sliding of a snake’s body.

The diction in David Wagoner’s “Skylark”,  referencing  Shelley’s  “Ode to A Skylark” is deliberately plain. Wagoner’s  skylark is neither sublime or a blithe spirit.  She soars the sky but her story of the falcon which will attack her when she is off guard is told in concrete, earth- bound language. 

Among the nonfiction, Karen Wilkin reviews a broad range of art and photography at New York sites in “At The Galleries." Additionally, Brooke Allen reviews John Adams: Revolutionary Writings. This latter review was a delight to read because of its blend of gosspy tone with fine scholarship. Allen reports that during the long, hot deliberations in Philadelphia leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence Adams’ lengthy perorations had a comical aspect. You almost hear the loud chorus, “Sit down, John, sit down, John for God’s sake John, sit down!”.

“Shakespeare’s Epitaph” by Alfred Corn looks at the short poem on Shakespeare’s tomb: 

GOOd  FREND FOR IESVS SAKE FORBEARE
TO DIGG THE DVST ENCLOASED HEARE
BLESTe BE Ye MAN Yt SPARES THES STONES
AND CVRST BE HE Yt MOVES MY BONES

It is a fascinating analysis and although he allows that the epitaph is a  minor work and looks like doggerel at first glance he makes a good case for the reader to take the verse seriously. He alludes to its Biblical references and other literary associations. He points out also that it  is written in iambic tetrameter couplets and there is significant  alliteration. 

Another wonderfully engaging nonfiction piece is Mark Jarmin’s  review of  Robert Alter’s  “A Word To the Wise: New Translations of Job, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.”  Here Jarmin informs us that the purpose of this new 2009 translation is to offer a version of the  Psalms that does not have a Christian message of salvation as is emphasized in the King James Authorized Version.  Instead it provides an English translation of  these readings  which is as close as possible to the original Hebrew.  Wrested from the Christian salvational message Jarmin observes that  the Psalms, especially Ecclesiastes, have more in common with the stoical Marcus Aurelius than with the teachings of Moses or Jesus.

You will find a hearty mix of work here in The Hudson Review. Criticism comes side by side with poetry, fiction flush with nonfiction. It is not a journal for lightweights--many contributors are professors or researchers with a great deal of publications to their credit. Still, there is enough variety here to interest readers with many interests, from many levels of experience.