Curtis Smith. Press 53, $14.95 trade paperback (160p) ISBN: 978-1-935708-75-9
When I finished reading Beasts and Men, I flipped
through the pages rereading passages and sentences I had underlined, and notes
I had made in the margins. I underlined at least one sentence in each story,
and in most I underlined several. I thought about writing down the sentences
here or maybe transcribing my notes for this review, but I decided against it
because I don't want to give that much away.
Curtis Smith tells these stories with no detail wasted. Each
story is human, purposeful, and masterful. Smith's compassion and diversity of
understanding the human experience is comparable to how well William Gibson
understands Tokyo.
From The Pact, a story about assisted suicide:
“She remembered him on a snowy day, wool cap he used to
wear. 'Thank you,' he said before the plastic eclipsed his mouth. The bag rose
and fell. Its awful rustle mesmerizing.”
To the story, The Tycoon, (which would be comfortable
as a P. T. Anderson film):
“Despondent over the cotton that grew no higher than his
shin, the boy's father put a shotgun to his heart and pulled the trigger. The
chunks of spine the sheriff pulled from the shanty wall looked like opossum
teeth.”
His attention to detail reminds me of Eugene Marten, and his
smoky voice hearkens to Raymond Chandler.
I found it odd that the cover artist Suzanne Stryk has a
page-long biography in the back of the book after Smith's much shorter
biography a page before. Her piece, Collecting
the Wild III, was used by permission—hence not created specifically for the
book—and that's the only thing I found weak here: a cover that doesn't do the
text justice.
In these stories, Smith always delivers a rousing last
paragraph and a knockout last sentence that leads the reader right into the
next piece until the very last page. (February 2013)
Purchase Beasts and
Men HERE.
Reviewer bio: Ben Spivey is the author of two books, Black God (Blue Square Press 2012) and Flowing in the Gossamer Fold (Blue
Square Press 2010). His writing has been published in places like elimae, PANK
and Abjective.
