Review
An enviable collection of free verse on one of the most enduring writers of the 20th century, Franz Kafka, gives a look into the life of this writer as well as his family and the culture of his times. A figure most of us know only by reputation, takes on a breathing, contemporary aspect based on extensive research by a widely respected award winning American poet. The craftsmanship of the collection is to be savored. --Carol Smallwood
Peonies are relatively fragile flowers, both to grow and to maintain in cut flower arrangements. They require the right balance of light and water to thrive, and have difficulty growing in close proximity with others. The fact that peonies were a favored flower of celebrated Czech writer Franz Kafka has not gone amiss for Judith Skillman; in her latest collection of poetry, Kafka s Shadow, she frequently makes reference to it, alluding to Kafka s own character and personal life, as well as his writings, in the process. For those well-versed in Kafka s body of work, Kafka s Shadow provides even deeper insight into his life and influences. His fraught relationships with his family members, friends, and romantic partners, as related by his personal letters and extrapolated from his fiction, are represented beautifully in Skillman's poems, with echoes of Kafka s own departures into surrealism intertwined. For example, from an early poem in the collection entitled Kafka s Wound Toward sunset it bleeds orange, plums and wine. His father always at table with mug in hand. How long must a son allow the city to unwind its long avenues, branching rivers full of walkers insular with autumn. ... He s learned one lesson. This wound must be purged each day, else the stench of what it carries comes from his mouth, and others turn away. The strain of Kafka s authoritarian upbringing and subsequent taking of a bread job a job one takes only to collect a salary, not for any personal satisfaction to please his father informs so much of his writing, and Skillman returns to this theme of discontentment, of lack of fulfillment, in many ways, including, as we see above, the idea of a wound that must be constantly cleansed, yet never heals. Kafka s romantic life was similarly troubled; he was engaged multiple times although he never married had several affairs, and visited brothels regularly. In Kafka s Shadow, Skillman bittersweetly brings to life the character of Felice, a woman Kafka dated and to whom he was engaged twice during a five-year span. She is described in Night in Kafka's voice: He spends an hour, maybe two, counting her fingers, memorizing her hair not as soft as he would like. A dirty blonde in nylon stockings. Why bother to undress? A sensation called disgust can be lessened by a starched shirt. Who is bound to feel less than a button, as it slips in and out of the hole made especially for it? The beauty of this poem, and all of the poems in which Felice features, is the emptiness of it: the veneer of love is there, but the actual substance of it is lacking. The balance has not been struck, and the metaphorical peony flower does not thrive. However, for readers who are not as familiar with Kafka s life or work, Kafka's Shadow still has much to offer. --Issa M. Lewis, Mom Egg Review
. . . readers will encounter the intelligence and honesty of the real thing. --Brendan Galvin
About the Author
Judith Skillman, MA English Literature, is the recipient of an award from the Academy of American Poets for her book Storm (Blue Begonia Press). Two of her books were finalists for the Washington State Book Award (Red Town and Prisoner of the Swifts). Skillman's poems have appeared in Poetry, FIELD, The Southern Review, The Iowa Review, Shenandoah, Prairie Schooner, Zyzzyva, and other journals and anthologies. She has been a Writer in Residence at the Centrum Foundation in Port Townsend, Washington, and The Hedgebrook Foundation. At the Center for French Translation in Seneffe, Belgium, she translated Belgian-French poet Anne- Marie Derèse. Her collaborative translations have appeared in Northwest Review, Kalyna Review, and Ezra. A Jack Straw Writer in 2008 and 2013, Skillman s work has been nominated for Pushcart Prizes, the UK Kit Award, Best of the Web, and is included in Best Indie Verse of New England.
