Fiction and Poetry Three Questions: “First, Can a Poet Neat Little Bow

Alumni Books REVIEWS note of uncertainly. It was important for us to not have anything tied up in a Fiction and Poetry three questions: “First, can a poet neat little bow. But a lot of the work we measure meaning? Second, can that did to broaden the book’s appeal was A Long High Whistle: Selected Columns measurement influence thought? And removing things. on Poetry finally, if a poet can measure meaning,” David Biespiel (CAS’86) can a poet, as Herbert strives to do in Such as? Antilever Press, 2015 his poem reflecting, as Biespiel puts it, -"./+0"+: We took out a masturba- !"# $%"$&% #%&'()*+) )" ," “one man’s resilient humanity” against tion scene. the intellectual heavy lifting they authoritarianism’s dogma, “describe believe poetry demands, the only even the ‘simplest emotion’ from the Do readers often assume you each wrote thing more inaccessible than the intimate to the political in the service “The fear of cowardice hasalternate led to wars chapters? and all form itself is what’s written about of humanity?” sorts-"./+0"+ of violence: We —the do get asked about that poetry. But both the novice and the The question may not have a feara lot. of beingSome [cowardly] people will say the seams aficionado will delight in Biespiel’s simple answer. But as in all of or the fear of being brandedreally show,it,” says that Walsh. you can tell that one A Long High Whistle. As engaging as Biespiel’s charming meditations, guy wrote this part and the other guy they are enlightening, these short it whets the appetite for poetry of wrote the other part, and they are often essays come from the acclaimed poet’s all kinds, and reminds us that poetry wrong. One reviewer was certain Gavin (Charming Gardeners, The Book of matters.—3'0*+ 3%&/40"+ wrote a section, but I wrote it. People Men and Women) popular monthly have preconceptions about what a column for the Oregonian. Quality Snacks coauthored book is like. But we spend Among the Andy Mozina (GRS’90) so much time together, we’ve been 100 or so poets Wayne State University Press, 2014 writing together for so many years, Biespiel considers 5"6/+*’0 &*)%0) ("&&%()/"+ that we learned what the narrator of are John Keats, delivers what its title promises: an the book sounds like and we can do an Emily Dickinson, array of palatable stories, each with a impersonation of that narrator. It’s our Pablo Neruda, and distinct, satisfying flavor. He spins 15 joint voice, which is different than our Seamus Heaney. fabulistic tales, most set in and around solo voices. None longer than Milwaukee and Chicago (it doesn’t get four pages, the more delightfully Midwestern than Chris, who were your mentors at BU? essays range all over this story opening: “Two grown men The person I spent the most time the literary land scape, from Ovid to at the Dairy Queen…”). with was Pulitzer Prize–winning Alexander Pope to Elizabeth Bishop, Mozina is at home with this form, poet Louise Glück, a former visiting from ancient China to contemporary combining both variety—the smor- professor in BU’s Creative Writing Greece. Read as a whole, the collection gasbord of stories ranges from a man’s Program and former US poet laureate. is akin to a poetry course taught by a account of his “nonsexual affair” to Ever since leaving BU I go back and witty, passionate professor who is the a tale that has Santa Claus playing visit Louise whenever I can, and I very definition of well versed. Major League Baseball—and cohesion show her some poems, which is really In “To See the Invisible,” draw- in the collection. Many of these generous of her. The other person was ing largely from Donald Justice’s stories involve impossibly broken John Paul Riquelme, a College of Arts lovely, spare “Memory of a Porch: relationships. The best of the collection & Sciences professor of English, who Miami, 1942,” Biespiel writes about feature narcissistic male protagonists. taught a Joyce class, my favorite. He’s poets’ attentiveness to “invisible Take “A Talented Indivi dual.” a brilliant guy and some of the stuff I geographies,” to “see what exists, into Mozina’s wry prose shines in this wrote for him made it into the book, what exists, nearly what exists, and tale of a condescending businessman including Corderoy’s essay. beyond what exists.” His amusing approaching middle age who has been essay “Continuous Music” hits a passed over for a promotion. He’s Whose work do you love to read? common chord with its discussion driven to reassess his life and while he 1"2/)%: I probably read more nonfic- of the haughty dismissal (“It happens mopes around during a vacation with tion than fiction, great storytellers more than I care to admit”) of poems his wife and children, he ruminates like Barbara Tuchman and William that rhyme. “The worst offenders,” on how everything that once seemed Manchester. But David Foster Wallace he writes, “are aspiring poets.” bright and shiny is no longer: his MBA is my favorite hands down. Biespiel’s warmth and respect from Northwestern hasn’t snagged him for his readers is reflected in prose a higher-paying position, and to his -"./+0"+: I read a lot of short fiction that, like William Zinsser’s classic On dismay, his “smart and physically fit” and poetry. I love George Saunders; Writing Well, makes us care about, and wife has parlayed her attributes into he’s probably my top short-fiction be alert to, the wonders of metaphor, becoming more successful than he writer, and I love Louise Glück and simile, and inspired restraint. Biespiel ever imagined. It’s clear from the start Terrance Hayes. reminds us that every poem poses that he’s edging closer and closer to a !" BOSTONIA Fall 2015 54-57_Bostonia_Fa15.indd 56 9/30/15 11:34 AM full-blown existential crisis. In fact, You can make a strong argument painting her characters’ lives, in mov- most of Mozina’s charac ters experience that city would be New Orleans, ing her plotlines quietly and slowly some form of personal crisis—even founded by the French, expanded along. She brews her characters— Santa Claus questions his very being. by the Spanish, French again under their status, their intellect, even Throughout many of his narratives, Napoleon, and then sold to the United their skin color—slowly, like tea Mozina deftly injects the underlying States. As such, its residents never steeping in a porcelain pot. A few emotions of his characters—like spent a day under British rule (Andrew of her stories have abrupt endings, fear, dissatisfaction, and pain—into Jackson saw to that), or under finger- but this New Orleans native and St. depictions of food, wagging, old-line Calvinism. Peter’s Uni versity professor sure can which can be more New Orleans is a city replete with turn a phrase. revelatory than contradictions not easily explained, In the story “Life Is for the Living,” the characters a Deep South town that was awash in she reflects how “true integration themselves. slavery, but where races mixed easily, could be demonstrated by the Creoles The best reflec- a sultry Gulf port that shipped goods showing the unity of all races and tion of Mozina’s use barged down the Mississippi River human appetites when holding the of food as metaphor from the Canadian border. French bread, Spanish onions, Italian is in the title story. The Crescent City is famed for its salami, German mustard, Creole toma- Here, a divorced music (African), its cuisine (Gallic), toes, and Louisiana hot sauce.” It’s “senior project scientist” at the North and its architecture (Hispanic). There a line that deftly serves up the city’s American Frito-Lay headquarters has is no place remotely like it in the rest cuisine, culture, and racial reality. One fallen in love with one of the company’s of America, particularly in its defining of the strongest stories is “Achille’s VPs and sets off to pursue her. It quality: as an endlessly impoverished Jass,” about a talented horn player doesn’t bode well that the same man place that nonetheless doggedly whose career fizzled in an instant long whose job is to manufacture artificial celebrates everyday life. ago: “‘Can’t you shut your trap,’ he was satisfaction—tinkering with MSG That’s the city portrayed in Shaik’s famously quoted in the newspaper and maltodextrin to get the perfect new short story collection. when he shouted at a patron in The taco, guacamole, or salsa flavorings It is usually summertime in her Blue Room. Musicians all over town on chips—says, “Quality snacks and underbelly city, blast furnace called to thank him. But quality relationships are not opposed hot, a season devoid of festivals, none would take him up on but complementary.” conventions, and tour buses. the bandstand any more.” The protagonist is so tied to This city is populated by The story chronicles a last his work that he gorges on Doritos poor blacks and Creoles who performance at a friend’s back at his bachelor pad (Mozina couldn’t afford to leave town second-line funeral. displays some Jonathan Franzen- even if they wanted to (and Another top-notch tale, level corporate mockery as the man after many generations in “Maurice in the City,” tracks purchases at a local gas station the the bayous, they don’t want a New Orleans exile hiding very chips he works to create). The to). They work blue-collar among New York’s throngs chips are a prelude to the nausea- jobs, when they can find them.

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