The Death of Jean-Paul Sartre and Other Poems by Gerald Locklin, and: Children of a Lesser Demagogue by Gerald Locklin, and: A Constituency of Dunces by Gerald Locklin (review)

Reviews 93 The upward mobility that Soto exemplifies is limned by his mother in “Piedra”: “Mexicanos pruning orange trees on ladders, and our mother’s talk that if our grades didn’t improve we would be like those people.” In the same sketch, a young Soto climbs a hill, far above his picnicking family, the river, the world, and “Except for the wind it was quiet, and I was quiet too, with just one thought, and this thought was happiness. ... I will have my chance.” These brief pieces are autobiographical and understated, though several feel unpolished. In “A Short History of Sex,” readers experience the frustration and curiosity of a virginal boy who overhears others say, ‘“ It feels like the inside of your mouth.’ What feels like that?” Unfortunately, his hot curiosity is not well developed and the interesting essay just sort of drifts, demanding another revision, as do several others. But that is small potatoes, since Lesser Evils is another confirmation of Gary Soto’s special vision and flashing talent, and is well worth reading. GERALD HASLAM Sonoma State University The Death of Jean-Paul Sartre and Other Poems. By Gerald Locklin. (Madi­ son, WI: Ghost Pony Press, 1987. 32 pages, $4.50.) Children of a Lesser Demagogue. By Gerald Locklin. (Stockton, CA: Worm­ wood Review Press, 1987. 80 pages, $4.00.) A Constituency of Dunces. By Gerald Locklin. (Niagara Falls, NY: A Slip­ stream Publication, 1988. 40 pages, $3.00.) The Death of Jean-Paul Sartre includes nineteen of Gerald Locklin’s poems, Children of a Lesser Demagogue has seventy-six, and A Constituency of Dunces thirty-two. All three collections deal with half a dozen recurring subjects and themes: feminism; teaching; art and poetry; marriage and the family; philosophy and logic; and contemporary mores. Occasionally Locklin himself becomes the subject of a poem; and then, as in all his other poems, wit, humor, and irony abound. His best short poems are like bons mots: why our species has survived i notice that whenever igive my little boy a cookie or cracker or handful of popcorn to feed the pigeons he eats it. (Constituency 8) His worst poems voice his antipathy to feminists, as in these lines from “The Women Have Won”: 94 Western American Literature sexism is what communism used to be, and [sic] unwritten but punishable crime. it means whatever the women want it to mean. (Death 16) But in “Old MacDonald Had a Madonna,” Locklin jokes disarmingly about the charges that he is a sexist: “you are a misogynist,” she says; “are there any women, over the age of twelve, you haven’t written nastily about?” “yes,” i say, “i have never written anything uncomplimentary about farm women.” (Children 60) Locklin’s seriocomic thrusts at feminists possess a liveliness characteristic of all his work, a liveliness that makes it hard to put down a Locklin book until you’ve savored every poem. He uses wit, humor, and wordplay as existentialist weapons to survive the warfare of modern life with his integrity intact. And he moves the reader into battle, too, as in the following poem: Feast or Famine: Multiple Guess tonight at nine i had the choice of watching the mysterious stranger of mark twain, starting over by dan wakefield, return to the planet of the apes, or the go-between, adapted by harold pinter, from a novel by e. p. hartley, and directed by joseph losey, starring julie christie and, of course, the man who has appeared in every british film since 1950, alan bates. the choice i made told me a lot about myself. (Children 75) But given the absence of coyotes and cowboys in his work, can Locklin be called a western poet? Yes, because most of his poems in some way explore or comment on the California scene and because he joins other western writers in warning us that we’re fast approaching ecocide. In spite of such western foreboding, Locklin’s poems have the ebullience of Richard Brautigan’s without any Baudelairean affectations; and although each of Locklin’s three new collections is distinctive, I recommend them all. In “A Triple Homage,” Locklin refers to Hemingway’s observation that “if...