stories

Book Chat: The GAIAD

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On the brink of The Almagre Review’s publication of Issue 3 Environment, this is a perfect time to reflect on our Issue 2 contributor, Will Burcher, and his recent book, The GAIAD.

Mr. Burcher’s novel surprises! It also makes big promises. The author possesses an intelligent, cunning, almost slickly in-between, ability for prose and idea. The idea—well, it is large. How large? Immense. And the prose—it combines grit and realism with an unapologetic use of literary language. I confess to learning new words in this book (for me, a pleasure).

The protagonist, Fleur Romano, a competent twenty-something-year-old Denver cop, is in obvious need of a big adventure. Don’t we all? Something of a loner, she manages to get to a concert, sans friend or partner or date. This is where it begins. The adventure! And the author kickstarts it with a mysterioso of haze, trance music, performance art, and a shock-pool of blood.

We’re soon thrusted into a pan-historical epic that is an international-action-thriller/illuminati-esque/spiritually-ecstatic tale delivered in Mr. Burcher’s competent handling of prose. For instance, when the heroine, Fleur, is shown a video by her abductors, the reader is made to feel as if the video is actually being watched. Not an easy task.

As the narrative peels into the driving premise of the novel, the story surges through time, back into the deep past where humanity is shattered. What kind of story takes 30,000 years to tell? Why do stone-age animal hunts and cave paintings figure into the book? How does this necessitate the appearance of elegantly thin spaceships calibrated to a cosmic music? Did I mention that Mr. Burcher makes big promises? The answer lies hidden in the title.

The GAIAD, the first installment in the Logos series, lives up to that promise. Perhaps as interesting a question as this grand adventure is, is whether the author can deliver the goods in the following books. This story is a joy to discover, and I fell completely in line with Mr. Burcher’s narrative voice. We luxuriate in the sensuousness of the language—in many ways, this is a story of the flesh. Not vulgarly. But the grand secret that drives it all, begs the author and the audience to experience this tale as one expressed deeply inside the skin.

There are many things the author has done well in his telling. The close proximity of high and low, grit and eloquence, provide a constant strength to the text. This is Mr. Burcher’s debut novel, and as a Coloradoan, we are lucky to have him. I feel optimistic that the following books will carry this epic tale to its right and thrilling conclusion.

For those interested, please support local art, local artists, and visit Will Burcher’s site @ https://williamburcher.com/# to find your way to a copy.

John Lewis

John & Carol Stansfield Present The Almagre Review’s Second Literary Event: April 20 @ Hooked On Books

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Come join us for our second literary salon in anticipation of Earth Day. Thursday afternoon (5:30 pm to 7:30 pm), John and Carol Stansfield will read authors Edward Abbey and Enos Mills, downtown @ Hooked On Books. Admission is FREE!

Janice Gould Presents at Colorado College

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The Almagre Review’s first literary salon, April 6, at Colorado College. Janice Gould and the audience read and discuss feminist author, Kate Chopin, and her fiction piece, “The Story of an Hour.”

Almagre Upcoming Events; from the Publisher

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Dear Friends,

Once again, we share with you news from The Almagre Review. We interviewed famed Taos writer John T. Nichols, the author of the Milagro Beanfield War trilogy, in January, 2017. The Almagre Review will soon publish our Environmental Issue, with an excerpt from the John Nichols interview featuring his environmental philosophy for which he is famous.

We are also planning a Symposium on Sustainability and the New Agriculture. We anticipate that Colorado businessman and organic rancher Mike Callicrate will participate. Also soon to come, we are scheduling The Almagre Review Literary Salons. Our first Salon will be with Janice Gould, former Poet Laureate of Colorado, who will lead a reading and discussion of Kate Chopin’s, “Story of an Hour.” This is a very short story (about 2 pages) which we will read on April 6 at the Salon (location and time TBA).

In May, I will lead a reading and discussion of Ernest Hemingway’s, “Soldier’s Home,” another very short story.

Regards,
Joe Barrera,
Publisher

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Announcing the Theme for Issue 4: Language & Music

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Issue #3, Environment, is coming together. Today, we’re revealing the theme for issue #4, LANGUAGE & MUSIC, which will appear at the bottom half of 2017.

What are we looking for? Well, language is music, que no? Send us an original poem in french, with the english translation to accompany it. Send us a brief memoir in spanish to appear beside its english transcript. Or… a caption in farsi. Why? Because the script of a language might simply look musical to the uninitiated. Interested in fiction? Share a story about a Delta blues musician, a college music major, or a Senegalese rapper. A poem might double as a song lyric. The point is, language and music in this issue will be explored in relation to each other. To speak is to carve air. To pluck a guitar is to pattern it. Make us fall in love with the melody in your prose.

As always, surprise us with your original best. The privilege is ours! Questions, email John or Joe @ larevistaalmagre@outlook.com

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from the Divan, -Hafiz

Issue 2, December, Promises Special Contributors

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When Joe and I started The Almagre Review/La Revista Almagre, we wanted to build a journal that promotes local and regional talent. Often, the most important voices are the ones yet to be discovered. Our goal is to be a stepping stone in helping these authors along their journey toward literary success.

It’s with pleasure we share that two very special contributors will appear in our next issue; Clay Jenkinson and Mike Callicrate. Mr. Jenkinson is the creator of The Thomas Jefferson Hour heard every week on NPR, and Mike Callicrate is the owner of Ranch Foods Direct. As pleased as we are that both of them join us in conversation, it’s the up-and-coming authors that form the spirit of our publication.

The Staff at The Almagre are dedicated to building issues where new talent can appear beside established voices. We do this as a way of saying, no matter where you are in your literary trajectory, our pages welcome people of all backgrounds. We might buy an issue because someone we love to read is in there, but one of the chief delights is discovering a new favorite author who enriches our future reading experience.

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Reflecting on Leadership through the book, “The Character of Meriwether Lewis”

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Clay Jenkinson Book

A wonderful book! Clay Jenkinson explores Meriwether’s character and leadership like a geologist in the field, not a benchtop analyst in the lab. This is an intimate journey; he does not simply put the specimen under a magnifying glass and jot down a detailed list. He picks the matter up, rotates it, puts it under various lights, illuminates the textures, and manages to pluck a real person out of the shady bin of historical mythology. Lewis becomes someone we start to know.

What works well in this narrative is the use of various angles to explain the subject. One encounters John Donne, Dickens, L. Ron Hubbard, Eric Sevareid, etc., as vehicles to clarify the complexities of Meriwether’s difficult, sometimes overwrought nature. Clay’s application of Donne’s poetic conceit, likening Lewis and Clark to a fusion core, is an example of successfully using this approach. The polarity of prose is also effective. One goes from literary metaphors, Jefferson’s “theater” of grief in Virginia after his wife dies, Lewis’s “attic” of isolation and anxiety as governor, to the vernacular of being, “shot in the ass.” Whether this works for all is difficult to say, but it contributed to the book’s wonderful readability. In a page, one might laugh out loud, then delight in the discovery of a new word (“hendiadys”), next to feeling sadness over the tragic and rapid decline of Lewis.

One also appreciates Clay’s integrity to truth. It’s quite a feat, to bring to life and humanize someone as mythologized as his subject, yet maintain a constant fidelity to fact. The narrative never veers off into wild speculation, nor does it favor sensationalist assertions over strongly argued conclusions. The reader is led down a rational, sober, extremely interesting path, and Clay offers compelling insight as to how events affected Lewis and helped to lead him to his end.

A supremely interesting narrative about the complex character of one of America’s greatest leaders.