Labeled a postmodern epic of the South Dakota Gold Rush. Gary David's work does attempt to deconstruct a period of history limited to an active linear journal-like format whereby most conventions are broken down & accented with images from The Wizard of Oz, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, the Old American West; utilizing Viking fury, Jungian Symbolism, Sioux Legends, & even a touch of hard science. Actually 49 presences, each a poem, each a day in the journal of Deadwood 1876. From "Day 25": "...spear-shaker, you're gonna cry/ 96 tears!" Or, from "Day 48": "I feel my days/ over the mirror of its pages.//...white stone black stone/make.// Gung ho & hard on/ rising red, but on the run."--R.R. Lee Etzwiler
This review originally appeared in TapRoot Reviews #5,
Contact the editor, luigi-bob drake, at Burning Press
Copyright Burning Press 1994, 1996.