Strange Gospels by Kristina Marie Darling

Reviewed by Cynthia Reeser

Maverick Duck Press, January 2009

Emerging poet and prose writer Kristina Marie Darling’s collection of comic essays, Strange Gospels, was released in early 2009. The three nonfiction pieces are written as memoirs, but with straightforward, no-holds-barred, salt of the earth reflection. This up-front approach casts not only a down to earth impression, but also reveals the author’s ability to relate to her audience.

The first essay in the collection, “Employee of the Month,” narrates a college student’s first job in retail. A somewhat pedestrian take from a first-year law student who is under no illusions about being clearly not cut out for work in a department store, Darling’s story is one to which many within the suburban-bred set can relate. Much as the young retail clerk allows the situation to fall into its natural consequences (albeit with the hard work and endurance implicit in such a position), the author allows the story, peppered with humor, to tell itself.

“Thomas Pynchon’s Girlfriend” is a funny and poignant narrative that women who are chronically attracted to the “wrong type” (especially tortured artists) can identify with. “The Flat Tummy Gospel,” however, is both the well-researched centerpiece among the selections and the focal point of the ‘gospels,’ which here, discuss the struggle with weight loss and body image. Edicts like “And I wandered around campus for forty days, and for forty days these snacks tempted me,” and the opening sentence, “In the beginning was the word, and the word was FAT,” are not so much strange gospels as they are relevant bywords. The narrative matures as the speaker does, and a surprisingly fresh take is molded from a relatively familiar subject.

Darling is a promising and prolific young writer whose growing list of publication credits and solid prose make her one to watch and one worth reading.

Read Cynthia Reeser’s interview with Kristina Marie Darling in this issue here.

Order Strange Gospels from Maverick Duck Press, online at http://maverickduckpress.angelfire.com/catalog.html

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Cynthia Reeser, Editor-in-Chief and founder of Prick of the Spindle, is a freelance writer and web designer whose book reviews can be found on NewPages, Tarpaulin Sky, Bookslut.com, and in other places througout the web. Her poetry is present or forthcoming in 42opus, elimae, DOGZPLOT and temenos; and her artwork can be seen at www.cynthiareeser.com. She holds degrees in Music (Piano Performance) and in English Literature. Her poetry chapbook, Light and Trials of Light, is forthcoming from Finishing Line Press in February 2010.

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