Newfound (review)

circles and triangles, the second a series of variations on the s curve. Paging through the book, one comes across a number of other pictures which work well as both art and social commentary . On pages 56 and 57, two pictures of miners at the end of their shift have an unposed, "snapshot" feel about them which gives the viewer a sense of real understanding about what their work must be like. People on pages 84 and 106 have a much suffer look about them (indeed, it is almost as if Doris Ullman or Norman Rockwell had set them up for the photographer), but the side-lighting is wonderful, and the prints also succeed as formal designs. On page 107 there is another fine example ofsidelighting: the light shimmers through the tree on the left and falls on the face and hair of the girl to the right. The three figures, balanced among themselves and against the other pictorial elements, have a nobility about them which transforms this ordinary fishing scene into a picture of almost classic elegance. To be fair, there are also photographs which don't seem to work. There is a picture of a coal truck (or at least a coal truck if one looks very closely) working its way up a crowded street in Hazard, Kentucky. I'm not sure what Levy wants to say with this picture. There is the obligatory "Prepare to meet thy God" photograph. There are a couple of muddy roadhouse scenes. In each of these instances, I see neither an artistic nor a propaganda message-unless they are intended to point out some sort of "Appalachian" cultural inferiority or quaintness. Fortunately, these lapses are infrequent . For the most part, the character of Levy's subjects comes through in images which appear to have been thoughtfully selected. Two of my favorite pictures are on pages 92 and 93. They are portraits or a young woman who worked in Delia's Restaurant in Rhodell, West Virginia. The more I look at these pictures of an absolute stranger, the more I think I understand her. And here is another example: I would imagine that one selects the first and last shots in a series with a great deal of care. Take a good look at the little boy in the last picture in the book. Forget the boy's obvious poverty, forget that this is another Appalachian photographed with patches and without any shoes, and take a very close look at the boy's face. Think of how much you can guess about how he is feeling inside. When a photographer allows you to get this close to another human being, his craft is worth paying attention to. -Harry Robie Miller, Jim Wayne. Newfound. Orchard Press, 1989. $13.95. Appalachian poet and scholar Jim Wayne Miller, one of the most brilliant and best-loved writers in the mountain region, belongs to that rare and blessed literary species: the writer who is admired by the average reader as well as by the academic community. Robert Frost was another such poet, and Miller is often compared to him. Miller has all the credentials necessary to be taken seriously in literary fiction: he has two PhDs from Vanderbilt (American literature and German), and he is a professor at Western Kentucky University. He also has an accessible, unaffected style that charms the ordinary reader. A favorite lecturer and workshop leader, Miller is almost always on the road, delighting audiences from the University of Georgia to New River Community College, from senior citizens groups to schoolchildren. Several of his poetry collections, most notably Dialogue With a Dead Man and The Mountains Have Come Closer, have become regional classics because of their moving descriptions of mountain culture. 59 After twenty-five years of renown as a regional poet, Jim Wayne Miller is trying out the road not taken: he has turned to novel writing as a wider canvas for his observations. The result, marketed by Orchard Press as a children's book, will be required reading in Appalachian Studies, for both its substance and the importance of its author. The book is fine for young people. They will enjoy the...