Roots and Branches: Contemporary Essays by West Coast Writers ed. by Howard Junker (review)

Reviews 157 And the story of Stafford’sgrowing realization that only two things matter—that he love his daughter and that he continue to live—is deeply satisfying. But the real gift Stafford brings back from his journey is not his own story, however lyrically told, but the model his story provides for those who would make their own pilgrimage. In LochsaRoadwe are reminded that images passing through the filters we usually place on our senses can be most meaningful. Recording those images and the events of our pilgrimage as they happen is important. Being open to the unexpected and to our feelings is a necessary component. In effect, this book is about the process of being a pilgrim. The illustrations generally enhance the text, although a map of Stafford’s trip contains geographical inaccuracies and several misspellings. However, these small flaws do not detract from the feeling of warmth that Hannah Hinchm an’s sketches give the book. LochsaRoad will appeal to readers who would usejourneys to discover in the land, in other people, and in themselves what they need to be healed. b o y e s Utah State University \Jt6ots and Branches: Contemporary Essays by West Coast Writers. Edited by Howard Junker. (San Francisco: Mercury House, Inc., 1991. 287 pages, $10.95.) The essays and illustrations in Roots and Branches are collected from the literary magazine ZYZZYVA: A Quarterly of West Coast Writers and Artists, which according to Editor Howard Junker aspires to “publish the full spectrum of writing, both mainstream and experimental.” The “roots” section of the metaphorical tree establishes the multicultural heritage characteristic of the region. Warren D’Azevedo’s “Feathers” and Bar­ bara Davis’s “The Shadow Catcher” explore Native American memories, while pictures of text carved in slate show Delores Hayden’s tribute to “forty-four settlers from Mexico,” twenty-six with African ancestors, who came in 1781 to “establish the Pueblo of Los Angeles.” Not surprisingly, there is a retrospective article, “The Chinese around Monterey Bay,” but the inclusion of “One Big Family” about Alev Lytle Croutier’s Turkish roots is not as predictable. And Paula Gunn Allen in “My Lebanon” shares memories of both her Native Ameri­ can and her Lebanese grandmothers. The “branches” of the metaphorical tree split into two sub-sections titled “Words” and “Deeds.” Selections in “Words,” such as “Photography & Fame,” and “That Architecture Is a Language,” tend to articulate the affinities of the verbal and visual arts. Other selections include the verbal collage, “Some Boy­ friends,” the philosophizing of “The Hip Plumber,” the business dialogue of “The Partners,” the 1960s genesis of a popular San Francisco bookstore in 158 Western American Literature “China Books Begins”and the homophobic black humour of “Arse Longa, Vita Brevis: Jokes about AIDS.” In “Poetry & Painting,” poet Bill Berkson declares that “art and social behavior could be seen as extending from one another and talked about in the same terms.”Some selections in “Deeds”—the metaphorical fruit of the tree—explore potentially self-destructive actions, such as drug use in Blair Fuller’s “A New Ocean,” and Peter Coyote’s “Sleeping Where I Fall.” Others relate adventures such as Russ Riviere’s “The 20-Breath Snake,” David Harris’s “My Best Friend,”John Haines’s “Mudding Up,” Leo Braudy’s “Renew­ ing the Edge.” Still others explore creative activity: Christopher Alexander’s “The Perfection of Imperfection,” Hildegarde Flanner’s “Bamboo: An Honest Love Affair,” Gary Soto’s “The Savings Book,” Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s “A Re­ port on a Happening in North Beach San Francisco,” and Lindsey Shere’s “Violet Candies.” Readers should not expect definitive West Coast characteris­ tics to emerge from this eclectic group of essays. ROBERTA SHARP California State Polytechnic University, Pomona ty at the End of the World. By V. B. Price. Photographs by Kirk Gittings. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992. 171 pages, $19.95.) V. B. Price places Albuquerque at the end of the world for two obvious reasons. Set in a unique landscape, it is isolated physically from other urban centers and psychically from the mainstream imagination; it is the center of apocalyptic nuclear research. But the city also has problems endemic to mod­ em America...