The Greensboro Review – Fall 2005

Aching for a good, solid story? This issue has four outstanding ones. The voices are resonant, triumphantly free of cell phone repartee and brand-name shorthand. Treat yourself to a giggling weep at the fragile humanity in a story by Michael Poore: ”You can tell Marie’s brother has problems, like his mind is inside out.

Aching for a good, solid story? This issue has four outstanding ones. The voices are resonant, triumphantly free of cell phone repartee and brand-name shorthand. Treat yourself to a giggling weep at the fragile humanity in a story by Michael Poore: ”You can tell Marie’s brother has problems, like his mind is inside out. He can’t remember his name the way most people can, so you have to call him by whatever he last did worth mentioning….Came Upstairs can remember stories word-for-word…..” Fictions by Lyn Stevens, Kevin Wilson and Sean Ennis (on a father’s holiday gifts: “It was a strange, vomiting kind of charity.”) have first-person narrators who will follow you home. The style is realist; the irony, refined and gentle. Stevens’ deceptively direct narration questions nothing less than the nature of mammalian love and survival. Poore, Wilson and Ennis are particularly adept at drawing eccentric characters that steer clear from wacky and cute. The issue features work by 16 poets as well. More than half of the authors and works are in or of The South, but the most overt address is Natasha Trethewey’s poem, “Southern History”: “Before the war they were happy, he said, / quoting our textbook. (This was senior-year / history class.) The slaves were clothed, fed, / and better-off under a master’s care.” [The Greensboro Review, English Dept., 134 McIver Building, UNCG, PO Box 26170, Greensboro, NC 27402-6170. Single issue $5. www.greensbororeview.com] – Lisa K. Buchanan