Review of Chris Dombrowski’s “The River You Touch” in Harvard Review
“Henry Thoreau wanted his nature-based Walden to be about everything, but he never had a wife and kids. Chris Dombrowski’s memoir about life in rural Montana—with all its hunting, fishing, foraging, philosophy, and home economics—is deepened by the presence of his wife, Mary, an elementary school teacher, and the children they share.”
Read Henry’s review in the Harvard Review Online
Review of John N. Maclean’s “Home Waters” in Harvard Review
“John N. Maclean begins his memoir fly fishing on Montana’s Big Blackfoot River. Many years earlier, he had asked his father, Norman, why they no longer fished that stretch of river. His father had explained that it was because he didn’t know the new landowner, but the son also claims that his father ‘held many memories close, in a kind of time vault, to be reshaped and burnished without the nuisance of updates.'”
Read Henry’s review in the Harvard Review Online
Review of John Larison’s novel, “Whiskey When We’re Dry” in Harvard Review
“John Larison’s Whiskey When We’re Dry has all the classic elements of a Western saga: endlessly promising yet punishing land, tobacco and booze, corrupt lawmen and kindly prostitutes, good guys and bad guys with guns blazing. But it’s the particular story of our hero, Jesse, and her gender fluidity that makes this a truly excellent book.”
Read Henry’s review in the Harvard Review Online
Review of Tracy Smith’s collection of poetry, “Wade in the Water” in Harvard Review
Tracy K. Smith’s fourth book of poetry ends with “An Old Story” of terrible times. Echoing Yeats’s “The Second Coming,” Smith bemoans a ravaged land and rising hate—the “worst in us having taken over / And broken the rest utterly down.”
Read Henry’s review in the Harvard Review Online
Review of Charles Bukowski: “On Drinking” in New York Journal of Books
“Bukowski tells us: ‘Drinking is a form of suicide where you’re allowed to return to life and begin all over the next day.’”
Read Henry’s review in the New York Journal of Books.
Review of Todd Davis’ “WinterKill”
“I believe, / despite my unbelief,” Todd Davis testifies in Winterkill’s opening “Homily”.”
Read Henry’s review of Todd Davis’ new collection of poems Winterkill in Harvard Review Online.