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Tuesday, September 23, 2008

A lovely review of my cd

May I take a brief break from the election, friends? And may I stop thinking about the pathetic, hypocritical attempts by all of those greedy bastards (Repugs and Dems) to put band-aids on the trick knees of the global economy? A bit of very pleasant news of a ridiculously personal nature (really, who am I in the scheme of things? Just another self-promoting writer in a sea of drowning colleagues and not. (Oy Veh Ishmael!)

So the gifted poet Larissa Shlaimo, who reads brilliantly btw, and has TWO cds out (that's obscene, Larissa), offered to review my CD Inventions II: Fictions, Fusions, and Poems. I can only quote the beginning of the review, if anyone wants to read it, as Larissa will be submitting it to journals and such. Hey ... if you want to BUY it (support a baby bomber who can't get a paying job), it's here! Okay, I've advertised it here before, but it's not on the best seller list. If you want it cheaper, find me. I'm real easy to find!

Here's the beginning of the review (copyright Larissa Shmailo):

"Imagination’s Form: Carol Novack’s Inventions II: Fictions, Fusions, & Poems

Carol Novack is a conundrum to literary editors whose ideas of poetry and fiction as forms are rigid. To such editors, Novack might say, as one of the personae on her CD does, “Your imagination has closed walls.” The best term for Novack’s literary form— flash fiction qua prose poem qua fusion—is Novack’s own, invention. The eloquent inventions of this CD are witty, lyrical, and new, even as they reinvent the themes of family, myth, art, and self.

The introductory piece on the CD is “Destination,” invoking ideas of perception, longing, and individual reality.

On the hill, there is an easel holding a painting of a town. You are always traveling to the town, but whenever you think you've arrived, there is nothing but stones, statutes and indigestible bread. You return to the painting. You wonder if there’s a detail you’ve missed, a clue that will help you find the town. You let your eyes be deceived. They are connected to your heart with its longing to nest; you are possessed with owning. You lose your perspective again and again, wanting perspective, you are cursed.
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In this elusive world, as in ours, the homeless are arrested when they stay still. (“In those towns they lock up the homeless when they remain in one spot and throw stones at Gypsies.”) The town of the painting, a longed for destination and artifice both, has a claim on both reality and alternate realities.

The crux of Novack’s art is her imaginative power to bring alternate realities to vibrant life. To this end, Novack’s language is richly inventive. The inventions are replete with alliteration, vivid figures, and witty word play...."

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