Novelist Laurie Alberts was a high school junior in 1969, with what we moderns would recognize as an eating disorder and a highly dysfunctional family.  Small wonder that she would be awed by the attentions of Harvard student Kim Janik, whom she met at a synagogue-he was tending bar, she was serving hot hors d'oeuvres to the crowd.  In a few moments of conversation about poetry and psychology, something clicked between the two bright teens that would keep them in a dance of attraction and repulsion for the next several years.

Twenty-seven years later-long after they had lost contact-Alberts learned that Janik's body had been found in the desert, where he had died alone and exposed to the elements after a struggle with alcoholism that had afflicted what had seemed, in those heady undergrad days, a hugely promising life and career.  In his car was a picture of the two of them in 1970, fresh faces and lanky hair.

Stunned, Alberts set about trying to understand how it could have come to this, interviewing the people who had known him towards the end, digging deeper and deeper into her memories of their turbulent time together.  Alberts captures the terrifying intensity of first love for somebody from an abusive background and the manic beat of sex-drugs-rock'n'roll; she chronicles the voyage of discovery undertaken by so many in those times that it was hard to tell the curious and frolicsome from the seriously self-destructive.

Alberts is vivid and unsparing in her descriptions of the wild old days, and turns an unflinching eye on her own frenzied acting-out.  Had she organized the book differently and left us in suspense about which of these two intelligent, loving young souls would make it back alive, the smart money might have been on Kim Janik.  But instead, it's Alberts who finds herself, years later, with a husband-a husband who actually manages to be supportive of his wife's need to create art about an incredibly intense old flame-and Janik who ends up dying in the desert.

In her struggle to comprehend, Alberts is more than a little hard on herself at some points-one senses that if Janik were to read this book, he would want to give Alberts a hug and explain why it wasn't all her fault.  Interweaving her experiences of daughterhood and motherhood with her observations of her younger self and Janik's letters, Alberts has created a powerful meditation on the ways in which we impact each other's lives.
-Anne Pyburn

Let it be known that I have only been, at best, an intermittent practitioner of yoga.  Nor have I had much truck with the dime-a-dozen books that claim anyone can be a writer.  (To corrupt a famous saying of Oscar Wilde, "Those who can, do; those who can't, read endlessly how.") So I may not seem like the most suitable reviewer for this companion guide for writers by nationally renowned, Woodstock-based yoga and writing teacher Jeff Davis.  Or maybe, given my ingrained skepticism, I'm perfect for the job.  There's no point preaching to the converted, after all.

I came to Journey from the Center to the Page both intrigued and intimidated, but as Davis suggests in his introduction, I kept reading and trying out the asanas (poses)-several of which did make a difference in my approach to writing.  Among Davis' helpful practices are: setting an intention for each writing session, creating a "stoked belly" of perseverance, maintaining "joyful concentration," and allowing a first draft to wander.

Journey offers a spiritual approach to writing that is also eminently useful, chock full of ideas for "facing emotional crags" and "writing deeper."  A writer himself, Davis has taught yoga-for-writers to literally thousands of students, and includes anecdotes about their writing experiences alongside illustrated poses (beginner and advanced) and breathing exercises geared towards discovering rhythm, writing better dialogue, creating sound syntax, embodying metaphor, confronting inner truths, banishing "inner hecklers," embracing contradictions, and writing "beyond trauma."

Some of Davis' rituals are a little New Age for my taste-I can't, for instance, imagine bowing to my computer-but I was frequently struck by the meaning behind them.  Writing is a sacred act, and should be practiced in sacred space-not on a messy desk, sandwiched between phone calls and emails.  Any writer who reads this book, yogi or not, will come away from it richer, having been reminded to  be simply mindful.  Be aware.  Write yourself fully alive.

Writers are, above all else, in love with language and story, and Davis does not disappoint on this account.  His personal narrative is replete with literary references and compelling stories of his writing struggles and successes.  In the end, Davis manages to demonstrate through his writing the state of being that yogis call vismaya-"joy-filled amazement"-in which one is engaged in wakefulness, dreaming, and sleeping as one reality.

-Susan Piperato

Though Andrew Sullivan has been an articulate and active voice on the subject-a homosexual, he is a self-described right-wing advocate of same-sex marriage-this book is by no means a harangue in support of his own position.  Sullivan's journalistic credentials are impeccable.  He has written for such venerable publications as the Daily Telegraph, the New York Times, the Sunday Times of London, Time magazine, and most consistently the New Republic.  His commitment to presenting all sides of the debate is evident in the selections included in the anthology.

This second edition (the first was published in 1997) clarifies the debate for the reader by grouping broad-ranging discussions into thematic chapters.  These topics include a historical context for same-sex marriage, from ancient Greece through the Middle Ages and into Chinese and American history (the point being that this is not a new controversy). Selections from several different clergy address religious arguments in support of and in opposition to the practice.  The author includes a legal context-text from key decisions regarding Hawaii, Colorado, and Massachusetts laws, as well as from United States Supreme Court decisions-and more general explorations of the debate from the Left and the Right.  There are also excerpts of congressional testimony by Senator John Kerry and Congressmen Sonny Bono and Barney Frank pertaining to the Defense of Marriage Act.  President George W. Bush's speech in favor of a Federal Marriage Amendment is part of the chapter on the future of the battle.

Sullivan's short and insightful analyses introduce selections and highlight key points of the debate.  In his introduction, Sullivan points out that much of the new material is actually anti-same-sex marriage.  He observes that it is only in the seven years since the first edition was published that those who oppose granting homosexual marriage rights have felt the need to raise their voices against the idea, because it seemed so remote until fairly recently.

Taken as a whole, the book paves the path for a reader of any political persuasion to gain a broader understanding of the historical context and scope of the arguments for and against gay marriage, which clearly will be passionately advanced for many years to come.

-Amanda Bader

Only in the Hudson Valley could one get 27 wildly diverse perspectives on life, love, family, and self in one literary collection.  Prima Materia: Volume 3 showcases local writers' works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, all loosely revolving around the theme of "necessary narratives" and the subtitle "Stories We Tell Ourselves."  The collected writers sometimes dig deep and sometimes lightly skate over the issue of self-presentation that is so frequently part of the universal struggle to form an identity.  This grandiose theme proves to be a potent topic for contributors.  What is particularly enjoyable about the collection is its diversity of styles: such a widely represented group of voices could have made for a jarring read, but there is an unexpected flow and connection to the works.

The standouts among the mix of writings are the personal essays and short fiction pieces.  Yet the poems, short asides, and sometimes surreal selections in between provide breathing space and delicate pauses between the deeply personal works.  Many of the pieces invite self-examination as well as an analysis of the writers' predicaments and perspectives.

Emily Katz's knowingly introspective work about being on her own for the first time is simple and direct and invites readers to re-experience their own coming of age moments.  Alison Sloane Gaylin has written a real knockout with "The Score."  The richly drawn main persona and the skillfully portrayed characters enchant and absorb the reader so fully that at the story's conclusion it is hard not to feel a very real pang of disappointment that it has ended so soon.  Patrick Hyland's "Deirdre Goes on Dancing" is similarly engaging and highlights his talent for creating believable and realistic characters to people the narrative.  Saul Bennett's poetic explorations elucidate his past and family history and culminate in a coming to terms with his own child's unexpected death.  The poems are well-served by this mix of familiar familial landscapes, and spiked with jarring and sometimes unexpected notes of pain.

Prima Materia's editor, Brent Robinson, has done an excellent job of streamlining a rather motley crew of works and making a coherent collection with an emergent theme that is present but not overbearing.  One can only look forward to the next volume in this engaging series.

-Annie Kane-Horrigan