Glassworks
  • home
  • about
    • history
    • masthead
    • staff bios
    • community outreach
    • affiliations
    • contact
  • current issue
    • read Issue 17
    • letter from the editor
    • looking glass fall 2018
    • interview with Melissa Wiley
    • new book reviews
    • new opinion editorials
  • submit
    • submission guidelines
  • looking glass
    • fall 2018
    • spring 2018
    • fall 2017
    • apprentice 2017
    • spring 2017
    • fall 2016
    • spring 2016
    • fall 2015
    • spring 2015
    • fall 2014
    • spring 2014
    • spring 2012
    • winter 2012
    • fall 2011
  • editorial content
    • opinion
    • book reviews
    • interviews >
      • Ed Briant
      • Eugene Cross
      • Christopher DeWan
      • Eric Dyer
      • Julie Enszer >
        • Avowed
      • Mitchell Fink
      • Olivia Gatwood
      • David Gerrold
      • Cynthia Graham
      • Ernest Hilbert
      • Paul Lisicky >
        • The Roofers
      • Scott McCloud
      • Jan Millsapps
      • Anis Mojgani
      • Pedram Navab
      • Michael Pagdon
      • Aimee Parkison >
        • The Petals of Your Eyes
      • Brad Parks
      • Chris Rakunas
      • Carlos Ramos
      • Mary Salvante
      • Jill Smolowe
      • Julie Marie Wade
      • Melissa Wiley
  • flash glass
    • flash glass 2019
    • flash glass 2018
    • flash glass 2017
    • flash glass 2016
    • flash glass 2015
  • media
    • art
    • photography
    • audio
    • video
    • new media
  • archive
    • past issues
    • order print issues
  • Master of Arts in Writing program
    • about Writing Arts at Rowan University
    • application and requirements
  • Newsletter

Review: Songs for a River

5/1/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
The Beauty of Nature and the Dullness of Man

Review: Songs for a River

Rachel Saltzman

Jerry McGahan
Fiction/Media - Stories
Knut House Press: pp. 241
Cost: $35.00 (full color edition)
           $15.00 (black and white edition)
Songs for a River, McGahan’s third book, combines eloquent descriptions of nature, vivid artistic philosophies, and serene paintings of grazing buffalo in mountainous landscapes with a complicated romance that spans almost the entire novel. There is a Zen-like quality that carries over from page to page, inviting the reader to see art, nature, and relationships as more than just ordinary aspects of one’s life. But between the lovely portraits of wild North-West America, McGahan addresses the similarities between art, humanity, and the spirit of nature; although our pride as humans is to live and govern above the rest of the animal kingdom through reason and emotions, at our base nature we rely on the same instinctual tendencies as our hoofed and feathery counterparts. And even though we might consider ourselves beings of intellectual and artistic ability, it is difficult to push aside the lingering traces of animal ancestry along with the need to break free from societal restraints.

One great notion that McGahan illustrates throughout the book is that an artist is like an individual trapped by the ebb-and-flow of ordinary occurrences and how it is possible to break free of that cycle once the conventions are cast aside. The novel focuses on the lives of four people that become so heavily entwined with each other that an existence without any part is impossible. The forefront male, Miller, a somewhat lonely bird-watching enthusiast, falls for Constanza, a former art student that can’t seem to paint up to her own expectations. Also present in this basis for emotional turmoil is Seri, Constanza’s best friend, also an artist, who develops an unequal relationship with Miller. Nigel is Constanza’s art-instructor lover, a man who finds the calm and typical to be equivalent to death, or, from an artist’s perspective, “selling out.”
 
What really shines in Songs for a River are the eloquent descriptions of Washington State forests and communities, with beautiful watercolor illustrations and photographs to accompany them. Joseph McGahan and his wife Janet incorporate serene portraits of the local wildlife encountered in the novel using art techniques that the characters address. Photographs provided by Eugene Beckes function similarly in snapshots that fit with certain scenes in the novel. What makes these pictures stand out more so than a standard art featurette are the places they appear in the book: each image directly corresponds with an idea or statement within the chapter, enhancing the story through the imagery. This weaving of the written and visual make Songs for a River an effective lens that focuses on location, and overall increases the interaction the reader has with the story.
 
The interactions between these characters are what move the plot along, with the point of view switching between Miller and Constanza. Despite the unrequited lust between these two people, much of their characterization remains underdeveloped. The reader is aware of the conflicts each character must endure to keep the status quo, but there is nothing exceptionally unique to their journey or their motives for keeping mum until both have grown families of their own. Even Seri, who is viewed by the other characters as the most agreeable person of the group, is actually a weak-willed woman until the major crescendo of conflict that occurs almost toward the novel’s conclusion. Nigel’s change from a self-righteous artist to a more self-aware father-figure is reluctant but more apparent than those that McGahan forces the reader to spend thoughts with. As a result, it is difficult to feel anything, including sympathy, for these four people caught in emotional webbing.
 
Though dry and flavorless at times, Songs for a River is a culmination of human interactions, whether through the ebb and flow of relationships or how an individual perceives the natural world around them. The worlds of art and nature collide more so than any direct human-to-human relations, but perhaps that was McGahan’s ultimate goal. Coupled with the paintings and photographs, this novel reveals an intimate connection that can involve humans with the nature of the wilderness in ways that are unexpected, yet meaningful.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    book reviews by glassworks editorial staff



    Archives

    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    November 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    October 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    March 2013
    December 2012


    Categories

    All
    Able Muse
    Agha Shahid Ali Prize
    Alfred A. Knopf
    Alternative Book Press
    Andrews McMeel Publishing
    Animals
    Anthea Bell
    Aqueous Books
    Art
    Ashland Creek Press
    Autumn House Press
    Bedazzled Ink Publishing
    Belleview Literary Press
    Berlin Wall
    Black Lawrence Press
    Book Review
    Bottom Dog Press
    Brassbones And Rainbows
    Cake Train Press
    Catholic Guilt
    Chapbook
    Chris-rakunas
    Chronic Illness
    Cold War
    Collection
    Copper Canyon Press
    Divertir Publishing
    Drama
    Elroy Bode
    Ernest Hilbert
    Essays
    Eugen Ruge
    Fading Light
    Fairy Tales
    Family
    Farm
    Feminism
    Fiction
    Flash
    Furniture Press Books
    Gdr
    Gender
    Glassworks Book Review
    Gospel
    Greywolf Press
    Haiti
    Harbor Mountain Press
    Haute Surveillance
    Hepner
    Historical Fiction
    Holocaust
    Howling Bird Press
    Humor
    Immigration
    Jacquline Doyle
    Jaded Ibis Press
    Johanne Goransson
    Journalism
    Jude Ezeilo
    Language
    Lee L. Krecklow
    Lewis Hine
    LGBT
    Literature
    Lori Ann Stephens
    Memoir
    Mental Health
    #MeToo
    Midsummer Night's Press
    Midwest
    Milkweed Editions
    Mixed Media
    Modern Poetry
    Multi Genre
    Multi-genre
    Nature
    Nonfiction
    Novalee And The Spider Secret
    Novel
    Other Press
    Painting
    Poetry
    Poetry Prize
    Poetry Review
    Politics
    Press 53
    Prose Poetry
    Race
    Red Bird Chapbooks
    Red Hen Press
    Richard Siken
    Sarah Caulfield
    Sexuality
    Shechem Press
    Shirley Bradley Leflore
    Short Story
    Sickness
    Social Issues
    Sonnet
    Spine
    Spoken Word
    Steve Royek
    Stories
    Surveillance
    Susanne Dyckman
    Suspense
    Tarpaulin Sky
    Tears For The Mountian
    Torrey House Press
    Tragedy
    University Of Utah Press
    University Press
    Unmitzer
    Violence
    Wings Press
    Winter Goose Publishing
    Women

    RSS Feed

Picture

260 Victoria Street • Glassboro, New Jersey 08028 
glassworksmagazine@rowan.edu

All Content on this Site
(C) 2019 glassworks
Photo used under Creative Commons from Pascal Volk