Reviewed by Matthew Simmons It is difficult to give Terry Roberts’s debut novel, A Short Time to Stay Here, the full and proper treatment it deserves. This is not because it is a novel marked by “difficulty” of some experimental sense; to the contrary, it is a highly-readable, easily-digestible book. But in that statement lies […]
November Read of the Month: “A Short Time to Stay Here,” by Terry Roberts
November 7, 2012 by 1 Comment
“Letter in a Woodpile,” by Ed Cullen
November 1, 2012 by 2 Comments
Reviewed by Julie Cantrell Unlike many literary sites that review only the books being marketed heavily each publishing season, the Southern Literary Review is always on the prowl for stories that slip through the cracks. We are in constant search for the author who hasn’t yet been “discovered” and the manuscript that has settled at […]
October Read of the Month: Dixie Bohemia, by John Shelton Reed
October 22, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Allen Mendenhall John Shelton Reed’s Dixie Bohemia is difficult to classify. It’s easier to say what it isn’t than to say what it is. It isn’t biography. It isn’t documentary. It isn’t quite history, although it does organize and present information about a distinct class of past individuals interacting and sometimes living together […]
“Whispering Tides,” by Guido Mattioni
October 16, 2012 by 1 Comment
Reviewed by Patricia O’Sullivan. Italians Alberto Landi and his wife, Nina, love to travel, and their favorite destination is Savannah, Georgia. In fact, they go there so often that they are made honorary citizens by Savannah’s mayor. When Nina dies, Alberto can no longer live in Italy because the memories of her are too painful. […]
“The Inquisitor’s Key,” by Jefferson Bass
October 10, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Carrol Wolverton Juxtaposing stories from the 1300’s with the parallel story of a University of Tennessee anthropologist, Jefferson Bass’s The Inquisitor’s Key is exhilarating fiction. Jefferson Bass (a pseudonym for two men: Dr. Bill Bass and journalist Jon Jefferson) has no problem creating intrigue involving bad popes, crucified martyrs, and a slightly dense […]
“Karma Crisis,” by Nathan Brown
October 4, 2012 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by William Aarnes Nathan Brown’s Karma Crisis: New and Selected Poems (Mezcalita Press 2012) is an accessible, easy-going collection. Typically, the speaker in the poems seems to be Brown himself. A “wayfarer,” “a flaming liberal-hippie-type,” a “Hopeful cynic,” he is dismissive of Language Poets, postmodern theory, the Southern Baptist Convention, politicians, corporations, and […]