January, 2010

About 25 Loves

Now, for the first time, Chester Aaron has written some extremely short
nonfiction stories, set on the page as prose poems. Laconic, deadpan,
terse, understated blurtings-out: sexual initiation/mayhem/confusion;
love, loss, betrayals. Certain moments of being a Jew, whether or not
one wanted to be one, to be read as one.

Shock the constant, not the writer’s goal of shocking the reader,
but the writer’s own shock, even decades after events summoned,
depicted. Writer deploying new form to express—or contain—sometimes
nearly life-long, previously undisclosed (dis)content. Perturbation.
Innocence more than once abused; an aging or aged innocent so many
times disabused.

Some things you never get over; some of the real never ceases to be
surreal. Yeats asked, why should old men not be mad—meaning both
angry at and crazed by what they see. Did someone tell you art’s cathartic? Did you think it meant cathartic for the artist? There are things
that beg to be said, demand a say, before it’s too late. Before you run
out of time.

–Thomas Farber/Berkeley

Price $15.00 plus tax and shipping.

To order please call or e-mail:

510-849-2883

ayoung7@mac.com