Assignment 8: Review of "The Southern Review"

I know you aren’t supposed to judge a book by its cover, but while skimming through the literary journals in ODY, the cover of the most recent Southern Review was the first thing that caught my attention about this literary journal. The picture on the front cover features a very abstract, unusual, unidentifiable…thing, drawn in a rainbow of colors. It is actually a work called "Husky" by John J. O’Connor, an artist whose work is featured in an eight page insert in the journal along with the essays, poetry and short stories. Drawn in by the cover, I decided to check this volume (Volume 25, number 1, Winter 2009) of the journal out.

What a good decision! The Southern Review, published quarterly at Louisiana State University, is a great mixture of essays, poems, short stories, and artwork. It is a high-quality journal, with colorful artwork printed on glossy pages and literature printed on thick paper that makes you feel like you are reading your favorite novel as you are flipping through. Though the table of contents is listed in the front of the book in sections (poetry, fiction, essays, review, visual art), making it easy to find what you are looking for, the actual contents of the journal are mixed together (although they are organized by author), poems and stories all jumbled together. For me, this made the journal even more fun to read—it was spontaneous and kept me interested wondering what was going to come next.

Unlike some of the other journals that I picked up while browsing, The Southern Review does not seem to have one theme tying all of the featured works together. (River Styx is one journal that I looked at that stood out in my mind as a journal centered on a specific theme. I spent quite a bit of time reading one particular issue that was a special edition all about food! There were recipes included, along with short stories and poetry solely about food and eating! If anyone is looking for a journal to review, River Styx seemed like a good one… it’s down in the periodical section of ODY.) Back to The Southern Review, this issue of the journal is not a special edition and does not center on one specific theme. There does not seem to be an obvious mission statement about the goals or project vision of the journal, either. There is no introduction, only the table of contents and brief biographies of each featured author before the works themselves appear. Because of this, when I began reading, I wasn’t really sure what to expect.

I was pleasantly surprised. The first poem in the issue actually turned out to be among my favorites. It’s called "The Chair" by Robert Cording. It is a free verse poem without rhyme about a loved one left behind after someone’s death. The poem impressively captures a feeling of loneliness and melancholy, the tone, setting and imagery of the poem echoing sadness. The Chair also develops the idea of missing someone and feeling lost in their absence, a concept that makes the poem quite easy to relate to and connect with, drawing the reader in. It was a very powerful poem to feature as the initial entry of the journal. A bit further into the journal, I found a poem entitled "Time and Time Again" by Roy Jacobstein. This poem reminded me a bit of the some of the poetry we read this week (like "Fountain" and "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner") which included some historical information as a central element. This poem was another free verse poem, one long stanza which felt complete in that it began with the lines “If you don’t write it down/ it disappears” and ended with the line “write it all down, it still disappears.” Another poem that I particularly liked was "Careful" by Erika Meitner. This poem starts with the concept of a supposedly unbreakable, durable Pyrex dish shattering and connects this later with the fragility and resilience of children, while including an array of what seem to be personal memories in the middle. The poem is arranged in unrhymed couplets, and seems to be a modern, contemporary poem.

Other poems I really liked included "My Wife and I Learn to Accept Our Clutter" by Martin Lammon (a very simple, short, yet powerful poem with a nice message about the disorganization of life), "As Mastery Gives Way into Altitude and Forgiveness" by G.C. Waldrep (a poem which depicts a plane crash in a surprisingly elegant, graceful way that is somewhat bothersome), "Cold War" by Joshua Rivken (a poem that reminds me a lot of "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner". It personifies the fighter jets and ends in an incredibly powerful line: “like Achilles/mourning the end of one world and living in the next.”), and "Moments" by Brent Pallas (a reflection on life filled with powerful imagery and concise yet creative descriptions). These poems are only some of the many poems I would like to mention and recommend here! I enjoyed most of the poems in the journal.

There were a couple of poems that I did not appreciate quite as much as some of the others. For instance, the poem "Two Spices" by John W. Evans was not one of my favorites. I felt that although the poem was quite creative and contained some mythological and historical references, there was not much for a reader to hold onto or relate to in the poem. There did not seem to be a powerful message in the incomplete sentences filled with unusual words like ‘carminative,’ ‘glumes,’ and ‘transductant,’ along with a few words here and there in another language that made up the unrhymed lines of the poem. But for the most part, I can’t complain. There were very few poems I disliked—I thought the vast majority were great!

Just as a side note, besides the poetry in this issue, the artwork and the short stories were wonderful as well. John J. O’Connor’s artwork is accompanied by a few pages explaining how and why his pieces turned out the way they did (which was REALLY interesting and made his drawings even cooler). The short stories covered a variety of topics, from a powerful story of female friendship and uncomfortable secrets in Winter Formal by Victoria Patterson to glimpses of life as a soldier and anecdotes about war and basic training in Hand-me-down War Stories by Jerry D. Mathes II.

I would HIGHLY recommend this literary journal! The biographies of the contributors reflect a wide variety of individuals, but seem to imply that many of these writers are quite experienced and somewhat distinguished writers. This may somewhat explain the high quality of the work selected and included in this journal. Overall, I think that this issue of The Southern Review would be an appropriate (and somewhat inspirational) read for anyone in our class and it would be a great journal to strive to contribute poetry to! The poetry in this issue was awesome, some serious, some lighthearted, a variety of topics and styles. I will definitely pick up another issue of this journal in the future. I really enjoyed reading it and in my opinion, this journal is 184 pages of literature well worth reading!

The journal is at ODY in print, or you can check out the website at www.lsu.edu/tsr.

Enjoy!!