Saturday, June 28, 2014

Shadow Love is getting some Love

I am really stomped why this easy little novella isn't getting more reader love. So, I asked another reviewer to give me a woman's opinion. She really got the underlying reality - or is it - of it:



4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Read! June 28, 2014
Format:Kindle Edition
Monika Lenz is an attractive fifty year old who is disillusioned with men and life in general. She decides it's time to get her life back on track. A change of scenery and lifestyle is just what she needs to heal her mind and soul. She leases a cabin deep in the Sierra Nevada Mountains for one year. As time passes, the peace and quiet she so desperately wanted starts to backfire. The loneliness sets in and her drinking increases. The more she tries to heal herself the worse she becomes. She starts slipping in and out of reality, but the intriguing part of this story is neither Monika nor the reader knows what the true reality actually is.
Author Inge H. Borg does an exceptional job of keeping everyone clueless to the end. The writing is excellent, the characters are fully developed and the storyline is terrific. Great Read!
Recommendation: Purchase and enjoy.

* * *
This little story was in my head for literally decades. I remember telling it to my mother on one of my visits back home. She clasped her face in her hands and cried: "Ach, mein Kind, this will be you."

I vehemently denied such silliness - especially about the drinking part. As I sit among the pines in my lonely cabin in the foothills of the Arkansas Ozarks, I still resent the woman and her predictions. She had such an annoying way of being right (not about the drinking part, of course. And if she had been, I surely wouldn't tell you!)



Friday, June 13, 2014

A Punch in the Gut

Everyone has seen pictures of the imposing statue presiding over Rio de Janeiro. 

Especially now, when World Cup fever is at a pitch and nations ask "Who will be the winner?" it is more than appropriate to bring 
"Hard Landing, Poems 3"
by Canadian Poet Jim Bennett
to your attention. Why? 
Because cleverly using Brazil's landmark on its cover--"Hard Landing" clearly steps out in front of the fray as the winner.


This particular volume of the series is indeed a 'hard landing.' It came down on this reviewer with a haunting thud, especially "Childhood End." It continued to pummel my gentile sensibilities. Just when I thought I could take no more, a few limericks let me breathe, and grin. But not for long, and my grey matter was flung back into similes and metaphors. Bennett doesn't let you off easily. He rattles your comfy little cocoon; and makes you hate him for doing so when you had tried so hard to forget. He flaunts the truth in front of you showing you that only when you remember and forgive, can you at last forget.

So far, I found Poems 3 the hardest to read - but wasn't that the intent of the poet? It was also the one volume that I know I shall reread many times to rediscover more of its depths and truths. An astonishing volume of gut-punching poetry.



Check out Bennett's Other Poetry on Amazon:

On March 26 and May 3, I reviewed Poems 5 and 4, respectively (I know, I am going backwards - which does not detract from my enjoyment of these works one iota).