From Publishers Weekly
If the title story in this collection of 12 seems extravagantly whimsical, excessive and surreal, others are subdued, quietly observed and rendered; all reveal an impressive talent. "Mozart, Westmoreland and Me" displays an imagination with a strong affinity for the bizarre and the grotesque. Mozart sits at the harpsichord composing as if his life depends on it (because it does) while General Westmoreland sits at the button which is his to push, and the narrator appears to vacillate between those violently opposed poles of human possibility. In contrast to this outrageous scenario, other tales concern a young girl, clearly an artist in the process of becoming, and stories of childhood in a small town in the years following WW II, when the "commies" were supposedly launching their conspiracy against "Fortress America" via fluoridation. Each of these short narratives is marked by lyricism, sensitivity, humor and balance. Kysal, who has previously published poetry and short stories, is a writer to watch. December 1
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
These are tales of postwar America. Long-suffering women find various solutions to problems with their men and boys; girls contemplate nuclear fallout or the foxholes of their parents' marriages. In the most effective stories, individual responsibility is shown with great economy ("The Artichoke"); or (in "Sons"), the plight of motherhood is gently mocked. At times poetic or surreal, Krysl's prose is always pellucid and celebratory. Her observation is vivid and the humor often just right, though occasionally characters are flat, sealed in too much description and similar mother-daughter situations. On the whole, though, another good collection from Thunder's Mouth Press. Peter Bricklebank, English Dept., City Coll., CUNY
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.
