Review: Worthwhile collection
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 19, 2013
OWAW is a cross-genre anthology of short stories, songs and poetry. Some can be read for lilt and language, others for their meaning. I skimmed the oddly experimental, but there is something here for most tastes.This is not a book to be read end to end, a book to be thumbed through until the mind, or the heart, or the soul comes to rest on the perfect idyll of the moment.I found it uneven. Some entries read and flowed well, and fit with the three given categories of stories, poems, or songs. For example, Sea Bright by Ali Isaac, while interesting (and wrenching) is an account not a story.The book is in the main well-edited, but in some cases the language is too odd to read with flow, and becomes distracting to the piece. I found the setups distracting, as though the authors needed to "explain" the story beforehand. If it's fiction, let it be fiction.There are many interesting life moments and observations captured such as Jay Howard's "Tea," and the helpless terror in the grip of powerful surf in Parent's "Battling Waves."Some choice morsels are here, others you may skip. Overall a worthwhile collection.