Nostalgia for 70 , and: Man Pains (review) (1986)

Nostalgia for 70, Jim Wayne Miller. Seven Buffaloes Press, Box 249, Big Timber, Montana 59011, 1986. Paperback $6.75; hardback $12.00, both postpaid. Man Pains, John Clark, P.O. Box 1108, Norton, VA 24273, 1985. Another book of Jim Wayne Miller's fine poetry has been published, the second to come from Seven Buffaloes Press. (Vein of Words, published in 1984, was cited by the Appalachian Writers' Association as the outstanding book of the year by an Appalachian writer.) This collection is divided into five sections which indicate the wide variety of subject matter: Giving at the Office, Living with Children, A Log, Growing Wild, and Nostalgia for 70. Each section contains real gems, and in almost every poem there is that startling, so-right image or metaphor that typifies Miller's work. The themes are also typically Miller—the richness of daily experiences, the celebration of the least auspicious person or event, the wonder and the glory of all life. One of the reasons for Miller's wide popularity is his accessibility, whether in person or on paper. This collection validates that popularity, for there is hardly a metaphor, hardly a single word that does not carry strong meaning for even the least sophisticated reader. As carefully formed as Miller's poems are, the content inevitably and properly takes precedence. Even the leaps of poetic imagination, which in more autocratic, self-important poets deny the reader, are here a universal joy. Who can miss the delight of lines like "The low moon, another commuter,/ occupies a place/ in a row of streetlights?" There are a few flaws—as there are bound to be in the work of so human a human being. Some poems like "Quick Trip Home" seem barely poetry, but they are certainly very poetic prose. Some lines seem redundant or merely functional. In a few others like "Giving at the Office," similes are piled a trifle too high. Even so, there is, indeed, that joy that permeates all of Miller's work. There is that familiarity, that extension of comfort, that makes every reader respond with: "Jim Wayne Miller? Oh, sure, I know him. In fact, he's one of my very best friends." The poet is certainly to be commended, as is Art Cuelho of Seven Buffaloes . This is a book well worth all parties' investment. A blurb on the back cover describes John Clark's first book as "racy, ripe, raunchy , sad, sexy, sweet...a story of small town boys coming of age in Southern Appalachia ." One wonders how "ripe" a book can be, and the reader finds the book seldom "sweet," but the rest of the statement fits well. This is, indeed, a novel or cycle of stories on the classical initiation theme, modernized to reflect contemporary eastern Kentucky or southern West Virginia or western Virginia, the native land of the author. The stories are valid and intriguing, and the characters are for the most part completely credible. The relationship between the narrator and his parents rings true, and the settings are almost photographic, especially for any reader familiar with Southern Appalachia. Tones vary from horrifying to humorous and thus are both realistic and entertaining. Dialogue is handled well, with speech patterns adapted to suit both the narrator and various other characters. One of the appealing features of the book is the inclusion of very modern details. Reference is made to computers and telecommunications, and in the last chapter the characters are planning to show up at school wearing light blue and green hair paint. 68 These authenticating touches are contrasted beautifully throughout the book with the more traditional patterns of southern Appalachia such as conservative, independent rural churches and deep-woods "recreation centers." There are a few rough spots in the writing of the book, passages of unnecessary awkwardness, but some of this can be charged to the character of the narrator. A more serious flaw has to do with the "raunchy" element of the book. While the focus on sex may be appropriate to the age and condition of the narrator, there is too much detail, too much insistence on this one aspect of the main character's development. No...