{"id":814,"date":"2018-12-31T14:07:41","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:07:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=814"},"modified":"2018-12-31T14:07:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:07:41","slug":"lone-star-book-reviewsby-michelle-newby-nbcccontributing-editor-84","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=814","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star Book ReviewsBy Michelle Newby, NBCCContributing Editor"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span>Michelle Newby<\/span> is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews<\/span> and Foreword Reviews, <\/span>writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine,<\/span> and The Collagist.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lone Star Book Reviews
of Texas books appear weekly
at LoneStarLiterary.com<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/span>SHORT STORIES<\/p>\n

Glenn Blake<\/span><\/p>\n

The Old and the Lost: Collected Stories<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Johns Hopkins University Press<\/p>\n

Paperback, 978-1-4214-2103-2 (also available as an e-book), 244 pgs., $19.95<\/p>\n

October 2016<\/p>\n

The Old and the Lost: Collected Stories <\/span>is an anthology of Glenn Blake\u2019s<\/span> short fiction, the latest in Johns Hopkins University Press\u2019s \u201cPoetry and Fiction\u201d series. Several of these fourteen stories have been previously published in such journals as Gulf Coast, Southwest Review, <\/span>and American Short Fiction.<\/span> Set in the Old South of Southeast Texas, these tales are spare yet atmospheric, with a profound sense of place. If Raymond Carver<\/span> and Larry Brown<\/span> had a love child, the result would be Glenn Blake.<\/p>\n

Life is hard for Blake\u2019s working-class and impoverished characters, and brutality is common. Menacing, haunted, sometimes elegiac, a diffuse sense of unease pervades until the sudden explosion of violence (nature or man), the sound of which is immediately absorbed into the primordial soup. \u201cThe night has a way of healing itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lest you think Blake is all doom and gloom, in \u201cWhen the Gods Want to Punish You\u201d he describes a game of electric football from a character\u2019s childhood. The current is cranked. \u201cSometimes, well-intentioned, seemingly competent centers quickly pivoted and began blocking the quarterback \u2026 guards and tackles hooked elbows and began dancing over a hash mark \u2026 sure-handed, fleet-footed wide receivers sprinted directly off the field and spent the duration of the play butting their heads against the bleachers \u2026 cunning, calculating, carnivorous linebackers pirouetted at midfield.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two of the standouts deal in the aftermath of a hurricane in very different ways. There\u2019s a desperate humor in \u201cOld River.\u201d Jessie\u2019s search for her missing cat leads her to the local animal shelter where, because she cannot abide one more death, she frees all the dogs. As she\u2019s making her escape with a van full of canines, the drawbridge begins to lift for a tugboat. \u201cThe entire back of the van is filled with wagging tails \u2026 the beagle with his head out the window \u2026 the shepherd growling \u2026 the basset hound \u2026 begins to howl to the tug.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Old and the Lost\u201d is a poignant tale of a son returning to check on his elderly father after the storm has moved on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to get out of here,\u201d I say. \u201cI had to leave this place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMust be nice,\u201d he says. \u201cDid it help?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot so much,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt never does,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in such a hurry to leave everything behind,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never can,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI brought everything with me,\u201d I say.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou always do,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

One of two pervasive themes in Blake\u2019s stories is loss. Someone is gone or in the act of leaving. Whether the cause is death, divorce, or (never) simply growing up, the missing are as present as the left behind. The other predominant theme is water. Flowing water is often a symbol of change, the ocean an obstacle, the swamp a symbol of fertility; but stagnant water also symbolizes decay and disease, even death. Water can cleanse and it can claim. One character wonders \u201cwhat this country was like before there were ferries, before there were bridges. Bayous and swamps. Rivers and sloughs. No way in. No way out. Who in his right mind would\u2019ve settled here?\u201d<\/p>\n

A writer of tightly constructed short fiction is not dissimilar from an artist who paints miniature portraits. Blake is a master.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michelle Newby is a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews and Foreword Reviews, writer, blogger at TexasBookLover.com, member of the Permian Basin Writers’ Workshop advisory committee, and a moderator for the Texas Book Festival. Her reviews appear in Pleiades Magazine, Rain Taxi, Concho River Review, Mosaic Literary Magazine, Atticus Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine, and The Collagist. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=814"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=814"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=814"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=814"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}