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Title: Candy Bars : Selected Stories by Gerald Locklin ISBN: 0-934953-69-4 Publisher: Water Row Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: candy bars: selected stories
Comment: Gerald Locklin has been a major writer since the 1970's. His poetry is immediate, sharp, funny, and insightful. And his short fiction can reach into your shirt and jiggle your fleshy parts in a just a moments notice. I have wondered for years where on earth, or perhaps more accurately on what planet, the reading public has taken refuge. Do they all buy their books at the corner drugstore?
As the initiated are well aware, the short story is the most versatile of genres. The short story can be involved in the artistic rendering of life, that is the traditional situation, or it can be a simple entertainment. It can be an anecdote or a sketch - a biographical sketch or the snapshot of a moment in time. The style can be one of long, involved sentences or one of short, crisp and precise ones. The length of a story can vary from one page to fifty pages or more, with neither having an advantage over the other. The short story can convey a message in a paragraph that would be pages in a novel because of framework and the novel's gneral penchant for useless detail. The short story's unique qualities are nearly endless.
The short stories of Gerald Locklin have entertained, stirred emotions, caused rib-splitting laughter, and made me wonder about the human race for 25 years. If you are to own just one collection, buy this one. Soon. Now.
And believe the wise words of the reviewer from Lake Forest, CA, (Lake Forest? where is that? Sounds like some planned community where they have 20 houses per block, 20 bocks per neighborhood, 20 hoods per school - you get the idea. And no bars, I'm sure) his opinion is right on.
Mr. Locklin is also a remarkable teacher of writing at Long Beach State University located conveniently across the street, more or less, from the 49er Tavern. It was at the 49er where the legendary Locklin poem "Beer" hung for so many years. It is amazing to me that some jamoke from Boston can buy the 49er, sit at the bar, drink cheap beer, hit on fat ladies, and change it's atmosphere forever. But what really frosts my literary sensibility is that the rednosed, balding and overweight proprietor thinks he can keep "Beer" sitting on the floor of his garage along with his velvet Elvis and the size 22 panties from his latest conquest. Incidentally, for those of you who have not had the good fortune to see "Beer" hanging on the wall of the 49er, it is quite impressive - parchment framed in a fine hardwood with the words of "Beer" beautifully penned and flowing in an easy style like a quality ale slowly flows down the side of a chilled schooner on a tepid September afternoon at the Beach.
Those who do not think Locklin a treasure, do not think. Read him. Think. Laugh. Frown. Enjoy. Live. Drink. "Beer"
Rating: 5
Summary: It's The Real Thing
Comment: You don't read "Candy Bars." You are nourished by it. You feel it. Locklin's little pocket guide is like adding 2 parts Henry Charles Bukowski with 1 part Hunter S. Thompson, then a splash of Coke or Pepsi. If you add Pepsi and you're a Coke drinker, the first taste will send you afar, but the buzz brings you back. However, if you add Coke, and ARE a Coke drinker, the combination of Locklin, Bukowski, Thompson, the streets, your neighbors, other fellows, and the end of another day, adds the little umbrella with crushed ice and fresh fruit right from the start. You won't leave the bar. And this time, you'll want nuts with your candy bars.
Divided into the "Jimmy Abbey Stories", and "Other Stories" Locklin's "Candy Bars" takes you where you already are (if you're there), takes you where you want to go (if you're a prissy), or scares the hellouttaya (if you can't deal with yourself). Either way, if you're looking for something, Locklin exposes yourself to you. If you're not, he shows it to you anyway.
The only thing missing from Locklin's "Candy Bars?"...a long lost poem of his..."Beer" which was lost during the 49'er transformation. But I can live with that. Well written by an excellent author from anyone's block.
"Candy Bars" on second thought, is not just a splash of Coke for the real Coke drinker...it's the conversation from both sides of the bar.
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