Left Bank #05: Borders and Boundaries

The opening selections of this volume, the latest in the series edited by Stovall, are heart-wrenchers. Kathleen Tyau and Sandra Scofield eerily depict the necessity of letting children go beyond a mother's grasp. In a prophetic poem written shortly before his death, William Stafford vividly describes the afterlife. Even reportage can stimulate passion, as James A. Aho proves in an essay about the history and growth of white supremacy in and around Idaho. Larry Colton contributes a wonderful tragicomic piece about the government usurping Indian land, then compensating them with goods in such unequal proportion that they end up drawing the lines of the football field with powdered milk. But these winners are exceptions amid many examples of cliched fiction and dry reportage. Horror stories such as Michael Dorris's about life in Zimbabwean refugee camps would be better situated in weekly news magazines. Many contributors are from the Pacific Northwest and take their environs as subject, as in W. Ed Whitelaw's stiff academic attempt to correct misconceptions about Oregon's economy. This regional focus isolates the editor from a national audience. (Dec.)