Archive - April 25, 2012

No Senator’s Son by RJ Huddy has just been published by Peace Corps Writers Books. RJ Huddy is the pen name of  Bob Cochrane who was a PCV in Errachidia, Morocco from 1981-83.  This novel–No Senator’s Son–is about a young historian who decides to pursue his father’s dream for him and run for Congress. To accomplish this he must turn his back on his profession and on the woman he loves. People don’t vote for a man who speaks openly of historical events such as the Palestinian diaspora, and they don’t vote for a man with a Palestinian wife. So for nearly thirty years he hides his views on the Middle East, and his love for the beautiful Aziza Hatoum, choosing instead to lead a deteriorating, toxic life as a Kentucky Congressman. His squandered love has gained him nothing–nothing except the chance to run for president. Nothing except the chance to go for broke, with . . .

The Farther Shore by Rob Davidson (Eastern Caribbean 1990–92) Bear Star Press 158 pages $16.00 (paperback) 2012 Reviewed by Mark Brazaitis (Guatemala 1991-93) IF YOU ASK UNDERGRADUATES to name a modern short story writer they like, they might say (if they don’t say “Stephen King” or, forgetting what “modern” means, “Edgar Allan Poe”) “Raymond Carver,” although Carver died in 1988. There’s a good reason why: Carver’s stories about working class men and women in crisis are as elegant as they are spare. To compress so much emotion, so much complex psychology, so much life into such narrow borders is a wonder. So it’s no wonder Carver continues to have devotees — and imitators. If you’re an American short story writer and you haven’t been influenced, at least a little, by Carver, well, poor you. Most of the stories in Rob Davidson’s new collection The Farther Shore share with Carver’s tales . . .