This is a monster journal, with 14 fiction/prose pieces and 79 poems, all of which seemed to represent the theme of “Defining Family” in a unique way. Overall, I found the fiction (my main focus) to be literary in style and heavy on narration versus action. The originality of the plots was most impressive.

Take Stephanie Allen’s “Sympathy,” for example. Set in the Civil War era, the main character in this striking tale is a young black boy who runs away from his overly compassionate older sister. He finds himself tangled up in a traveling freak show until he gets too close to Sheba the Great, the shows main attraction. His experience teaches him, yep, you got it—sympathy. The lesson, however, is not overdone or clichéd. On the contrary, Allen’s writing is tightly controlled. She knows how to bring you into the story inch by inch, and take you out the same way.

Or Tricia Currans-Sheehan’s “Contended Cows,” about a new age dairy gone awry.

Gabby wasn’t the milker. Her sisters Maude and Dell had the hands for that. Gabby’s other job was to play the piano while they worked. This job was as important as pulling on those udders. They sold their milk and cream to the Organic Food Co-op under the label Contented Cows with musical notes circling the brown and white Ayrshires. Their ad read: Our cows are pampered. They graze in the rolling grassy hills above the Des Moines River. When they are milked, piano music is played to them. They like Back and Mozart for the morning milking and Beethoven and Chopin for evening. Their milk and cream has been pasteurized, but not homogenized. We want to keep it as close to the real thing as possible.

The trouble starts when Dell realizes they have a gold mine on their hands.

I also recommend two short-shorts: “Croup” by Jody Bolz and “Downtown Hanoi” by Louis E. Bourgois. “Croup” is an essay about a couple and their young children living with a host family in Guatemala for a summer. While there, their daughter gets croup, and the host mother expresses grave concerns. It is a straight-forward yet engaging piece, and I like the sense of mystery in the tone. “Downtown Hanoi” is gripping with an intense ending. I’m not sure if this piece is fiction, or creative non-fiction, as the journal makes no distinction in the table of contents. Since it’s dedicated, I will assume it’s what the journal calls “prose,” as opposed to fiction, though it works either way.

In the poetry department, read “A Child is Born” by Ellen Bass; “Through a Glass, Darkly” by Marcus Cafagña; “1964: A Litany” by Julia B. Levine; “Heir” by Thu Anh Nguyen; “Immaculate” by Paulette Roeske; and “Middle-Aged Adam’s and Eve’s Bedside Tables” by Kevin Stein.

Of these, my favorite is “A Child is Born” by Ellen Bass. It’s a dark and powerful eulogy to their suicidal children.

Now our kids are adrift across the globe,
and we’re counting the ways in which they are not happy:
One is etching the skin of her inner arm, a cuneiform

no one can read. One’s lain in bed for months, spooning cold cereal.
The youngest, who was never any trouble, swallowed ecstasy
and climbed out on the balcony, his arms raised to the lashing rain.

My main criticism is, like I said, they make no distinction between the fiction pieces and the prose (what I would call essays, or creative non-fiction). Most of the time, the writing style between the two makes it apparent, but there were a few I couldn’t tell.

The Crab Orchard Review is published twice a year. The Summer/Fall is a themed issue, and the Winter/Spring is a general issue. The next themed issue is: Come Together: Occasions, Ceremonies, and Celebrations. The submission deadline for this issue was October 31, 2006. The staff is currently completing the copyediting and proofreading for the 2007 Winter/Spring issue, which will be mailed in late February or early March.

Visit the journal’s website HERE.


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