Plain of Jars and Other Stories by Geary Hobson , East Lansing (review)

Abstract

eventually do,"from theAmerican astronauts wholandedonthemoon in1969. AdrianLockheart is a middleaged psychologist who travelsto postwarSierraLeone in searchof something thatis missingin his lifein Englandand armedwitha genuinedesireto aid thewar-torn country. He believes"talktherapy" can helpthenation.Initially, Cole (whoisEuropean) isoneofthetwo patients Lockheart treats. Coleissuffering from pulmonary fibrosis, and "Hereinthelandofthemute, Elias Cole haselected totalk."Theother is a womanwhosuffers fugue - an obsessivetraveling disease. Lockheart himself hastiestoSierra Leone in thathisgrandfather had beena district commissioner inthecountry. KaiMansaray isa medical doctorandoneofthefewprofessionals who remainedafterthe war. He suffers nightmares as a result ofa heart-wrenching experience during the war. He befriends Lockheart, andeventually their livesintertwine in a verypersonalway.Mansaray seestheEuropeans inpostwar Sierra Leoneas refugees: frommarriage, facing retirement, or,in thecase of Lockheart, as refugees running from mediocrity andboredom. Howdoesonewrite aboutmodernwar ?Forna tells thestory ofpeople . The novelalternates between theglorious past(circa1969)tothe yearsof rebeloccupation and the present(circa 1999),witha love story, a story ofobsession, a story of nearlove,anda story offriendship. Replete withbetrayal and heroism, thenovelis stylishly written and compelling. Aboveall,itisthestory ofhowa nation copesafter thehorrific atrocities ofwar. Adele Neivson-Horst Morgan State University GearyHobson.Plain of Jarsand Other Stories. EastLansing. Michigan StateUniversity Press. 2011.xiv+ 245 pages.$29.95. isbn 978-0-87013-998-7 GearyHobson's thoughtful introduction toPlain of Jars cites theinfluenceofKatherine AnnePorter, but thecollection seemsmorereminiscentofErnest Hemingway's InOur Time.Bothcollections portray"a particular person. . . involvedin an episodeof his or herlife. . . caught, fora moment in a manner that signals a turning point." Ashort story, Hobsonadds,"is a segment, orchapter, ofa person's life that can berendered inonesceneorseveral." Roughly two-thirds ofthestoriesinthecollection conform tothis description, andalmost allfollow the progress ofa Marine from bootcamp until someforty years after theaction (inonecase,theex-Marine isa minor figure inthebackground). Although he has various names - Lawson, Rollins,Darysaw,Wayne,Steve and theepisodesare sometimes in first person, sometimes inthird, the character is identified and identifieshimself as Indian,though as a mixed-blood he doesn'tlookitand is questioned aboutwhyhe doesn't actlikeeveryone else.He feelsthe call of home - usuallyArkansas butknows ,as at theend of "Shin Splints," that"itcouldnever be the samefor himas itoncewas." Most of the time,thecentral character reacts rather thanacts:to thethoughtless racismin an overheardmonologue thatprompts his decision toreturn homerather than go toSan Francisco andsamplethe whiteworld;to theinsistent evangelistin "TheOdor ofDead Fish" who leadshimtoabandonthelast vestiges ofChristianity; tothemartinetlieutenant in "Plain of Jars" Nota Bene Jim Drummond The Coyotes Forgive You Mongrel Empire Press Drummond's collection offifteen stories is funny, quirky, andsometimes disturbing. Theshort stories reflect the author's Oklahoma upbringing as they delve into the world of the small town and the mindset of its seemingly ordinary inhabitants. Seyhan Eroz^elik Rosestrikes andCoffee Grinds Talisman House Inthis Collection ofpoetry translated from Turkish byMurat Nemet-Nejat, Erdz^elik explores the concept of"Eda"-a poetic style that erriphasizes themystical qualities of language. According toJerome Rothenberg , Rosestrikes andCoffee Grinds represents "atrue exemplar" of this poetic movement aswell as"awork of both intelligence and passion." July -August 2011 163 whoorders theneedless slaughter of elephants, and,on a larger scale,to thedestruction ofirreplaceable Laotian artifacts bytheU.S.military that parallelsthe Corps of Engineers' bulldozingof ceremonial mounds inArkansas. Bothpointto "typical American wastefulness." Althoughthe focal character findscomfort in therarepresence ofother Natives, Hobsondoes not further themyth ofIndiannobility, savageornot. Inseveral stories, charactersdestroy themselves and others .One,"the Lagunaprima donna," dogs thecentral character untilhis new girlfriendbackhands her, "woman towoman." Apparently this gets herattention, for ina subsequent story sheis friendly andsupportive. Hobsonisparticularly critical ofprofessional Indians, like Wounded Knee wannabesin "A Christmas Story" andthedrunken, wife-beating pseudopoet in"Hollow Horn." But"HollowHorn"and what Hobson calls"fantasies" - allofthem satiric - seem less successful (some basedonpremises whose conclusions soon becomeapparent) thanthose stories involving Marines. Andthey lacktheprecision of languageand feeling ofthe great majority ofthe stories . Thosearedistinguished attimes by closeobservation ofthenatural world andmost often byembodying a psychological andsocialworld that exists, ifnotexactly in ourtime, in a sharply rendered and deceptively modest vision. Robert Murray Davis University ofOklahoma IsakaKotaro. RemoteControl. StephenSnyder , tr.Tokyo / NewYork. KodanshaInternational. 2010. 343 pages.$24.95. isbn 978-4-7700-3108-2 Itisearly afternoon ona late-Novemberday .A motorcade wendsitsway through thedowntown streets ofa major city. Inthebackseatofa long convertible, thecharismatic young headofstate sitsnext tohisbeautiful wife, wavingto crowds.Suddenly, fromatop a bricktextbook warehouse , death descends.Instantly, television screens fill thenation with nightmare images: theheadofstate hasbeenassassinated. No...