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River Muse: Tales of Lowell & the Merrimack Valley
River Muse: Tales from Lowell and the Merrimack Valley, a wide-ranging anthology of stories from various Merrimack Valley area writers, including unpublished works by Jack Kerouac, deftly illustrates this fact: fertile literary imaginations continue to grow along the Merrimack River Valley. The writers in these pages, grounded in a literary tradition as deep as those along the Hudson River Valley and the Connecticut River Valley, reflect a uniquely modern aspect of the New England character, one shaped by grave-yard shifts, neighborhood dives, comic book stores, immigrants, and railroad yards. Their stories give us the unvarnished life of a people and a place steeped in lore yet brimming with new mysteries. In doing so, they herald the region’s latest revival.
454 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2012
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January 16, 2013
River Muse is a riveting anthology that showcases some of the Merrimack Valley’s literary talent, reaching deep into the area’s long-standing tradition of literary excellence. Jack Kerouac, Andre Dubus III (House of Sand and Fog; Townie), local phenoms such as David Daniel, and up-and-coming new talents grace the pages of this collection of short stories, poems, essays and memoirs. The multi-genre approach in this book is certain to keep the eclectic reader entertained, as you’ll find mystery, literary fiction, horror, historical fiction, romance, science fiction and more within its covers.
Some notable mentions, in order of appearance:
Collecting by David Daniel - A prideful, unemployed father discovers the thin line between civilization and chaos in the world, and within himself, as he struggles to provide for his family. It's an intense tale about how individuals mirror societal breakdowns.
Bopha by Judith Dickermen Nelson - Bopha has found the love of her life in the shifty man named Fly. She's all but dropped out of school, and she spends her days attending to his every need. The trouble is, she's fourteen, he's twenty-three, and he's not being completely honest with her. It's a gritty snapshot about taking advantage of a naive young girl.
The Machines We Tend by Beverly A. McCoy - An immigrant girl has come to America to work in the notorious cotton mills of Lowell, Massachusetts in the 1800s. A girl like her doesn't have many options, and the "upstanding" men of the community know it. When she turns up pregnant, she finds out just how hypocritical America can be.
A stirring portrait of hypocrisy in a male-dominated society, the stifling of women, and how one of the nation's most profitable industries was as much a blessing as it was a curse.
Red Shoes by Stephen O’Connor (Smokestack Lightning; The Spy in the City of Books) - Jack is a bit of a lost soul, and when he inherits a cottage near Dublin from a dead aunt he's never met, he sets off for Ireland in search of his dream. He has no idea what that dream could be, but he's sure as hell going to go after it. O'Connor's off-the-wall characters serve up a hilarious, carousing tale as Jack experiences Dublin through the eyes of a rootless American.
~Vlad Vaslyn
Author of Brachman's Underworld and Yorick.
Some notable mentions, in order of appearance:
Collecting by David Daniel - A prideful, unemployed father discovers the thin line between civilization and chaos in the world, and within himself, as he struggles to provide for his family. It's an intense tale about how individuals mirror societal breakdowns.
Bopha by Judith Dickermen Nelson - Bopha has found the love of her life in the shifty man named Fly. She's all but dropped out of school, and she spends her days attending to his every need. The trouble is, she's fourteen, he's twenty-three, and he's not being completely honest with her. It's a gritty snapshot about taking advantage of a naive young girl.
The Machines We Tend by Beverly A. McCoy - An immigrant girl has come to America to work in the notorious cotton mills of Lowell, Massachusetts in the 1800s. A girl like her doesn't have many options, and the "upstanding" men of the community know it. When she turns up pregnant, she finds out just how hypocritical America can be.
A stirring portrait of hypocrisy in a male-dominated society, the stifling of women, and how one of the nation's most profitable industries was as much a blessing as it was a curse.
Red Shoes by Stephen O’Connor (Smokestack Lightning; The Spy in the City of Books) - Jack is a bit of a lost soul, and when he inherits a cottage near Dublin from a dead aunt he's never met, he sets off for Ireland in search of his dream. He has no idea what that dream could be, but he's sure as hell going to go after it. O'Connor's off-the-wall characters serve up a hilarious, carousing tale as Jack experiences Dublin through the eyes of a rootless American.
~Vlad Vaslyn
Author of Brachman's Underworld and Yorick.
Displaying 1 of 1 review