Issue 2 reviewed by Small Press Review
*GUD, *#2,
Edited by Kaolin Fire
Spring, 2008;2/yr;190pp;
PO Box 1537, Laconia, NH
03247, $18/yr,$10/copy.
$3.50/PDF electronic copy.
/GUD /(which stands for “greatest uncommon denominator”) is at the
same time an exotic,new wave mag, /and/ a fiction- find that reaches
back and stylistically touches the classics in world fiction. Like John
Walters’ short story“The Disappearance of Juliana” : “In Rome, something
happens....it’s the people that you study most carefully. No matter who
they are, they have their secret sorrow, and they seem to wander around
searching for they know not what.” (p.52) He really takes you on board
the good-ship What’s Next?, doesn’t he?!? Walters is an American writer
living in Greece with his Greek wife and five sons, teaching English as
a second language.And he’s typical of the exoticism of all the writers
here. Take British writer Vanessa Gebbie: “Jamie Hawkins, only child of
an old mother, had a hump on his back and one leg three inches shorter
than the other, so that he walked like a crab.” (“Jamie Hawkins’Muse,”
p.113) Among the other writers are Austrailian Cameron Gray, New
Zealander Paul Haines, lots of top-talent Americans, all turning /GUD
/into a major newcomer of a magazine that should be in the collections
of all serious university,public /and/ private libraries.
[review by Hugh Fox for SMALL PRESS REVIEW]