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Laughing Cult
by Kevin McCaffrey ’75
Four Winds Press, 79
pages, $13.95
Reviewed by Hannah
MacBride
This collection of poetry alternately feat-
ures dirges and odes. A world-weariness
permeates Kevin McCaffrey’s poems, but
the undercurrent – of rebirth, seeking,
and moments of true joy – restores bal-
ance. Words soar in these philosophical
works, which address fate and human
agency, then touch down in Houston or
New Hampshire in a scrap of conversa-
tion or an art show. McCaffrey weaves
the high-minded with the mundane in a
way that is distinctly human.
There is tension in many of the poems
between the life lived and the life imagined.
The struggle is present in the protests
againt bureaucracy, technology, and the
systemization of life – at home, at work,
and even in the universe itself – and in
the angst of exculsion in the title poem:
“Laughing Cult.” In this haunting piece,
the speaker can hear his neighbors’ “gen-
eral carnival of unbridled glee” through
the walls of his apartment, but does not
know how to share in their joy.
But joy does exist. We find it in “Mud
Season” – the recollection of playing a
game of football in the mud while stoned,
replete with the elation of unencumbered
play – and, more philosophically, in “Song,”
in which fate itself is murdered and a
human life set free. McCaffrey’s poetry,
some of which echoes with the music of
drums, saxophones, lutes, and oboes,
hints at the sunlight behind the clouds
(or the football lost in the mud).
Mostly, the reader is left with a desire
to seek what McCaffrey calls “quasi-
nonexistence through psychic fusion
with an experience.” Through all the
bland indifference, we can hope for those
bright moments of true joy. “Hey,” is his
final challenge to his readers, “seek purity
in the drifts.”
My Brother Stevie: A Marine’s Untold Story: Vietnam 1967
Marianne Kelsey Orestis
Lieutenant Straughan Downing Kelsey Jr. ’61 was the author’s
only brother. When he was killed in action on June 2, 1967, in
Quang Tin Province, Vietnam, the family died with him. Orestis
writes that she and her younger sister are all that remain of a
once glorious family. Steve Kelsey was a gifted athlete, artist,
and musician, with a bright intellect. He graduated from Princeton in 1965 and
immediately fulfilled a lifelong dream of joining the Marine Corps. This book is
his legacy.
The Essentials of Persuasive Public Speaking
Sims Wyeth ’69
In this portable, brief, and lucid guide to presenting, Wyeth coun-
sels how to calm a thumping heart and reveals techniques on
preparation, delivery, and visual aids as he provides vivid stories
and rubber-meets-the-road advice. He does more than simply
ease a public speaker’s dread, with historical accounts and incisive
observations on the power and purpose of speaking well.
The Brandywine: An Intimate Portrait
W. Barksdale Maynard ’84
The Brandywine River winds from southeastern Pennsylvania
into Delaware. Barksdale Maynard crafts a sweeping narrative
about the men and women who shaped the region’s history and
culture. They include the du Ponts, who made their fortunes
from gunpowder, and artist Howard Pyle, a native of the region,
whose Brandywine School of American illustration took inspiration from the
pastoral environment. Most famously, the Brandywine Valley is where N.C. and
Andrew Wyeth painted amid evocative landscapes for more than a century. Richly
illustrated,
The Brandywine
vividly captures the spirit of a storied region that has
inspired generations.
Living the Ancient Southwest
David Grant Noble ’57
How did Southwestern peoples make a living in the vast arid
reaches of the Great Basin? When and why did violence erupt
in the Mesa Verde region? Who were the Fremont people? How
do some Hopis view Chaco Canyon? These are just a few of the
topics addressed in this illustrated anthology. Readers will discover chapters
written by anthropologists over the past several decades. They speak about the
beauty and originality of Mimbres pottery, the rock paintings in Canyon de Chelly,
the history of the Wupatki Navajos, and other subjects relating to the deep indig-
enous history and culture of the American Southwest.
On the Shelf . . .
Correction
The fall issue of
Alumni Horae
included an incorrect spelling of the fishing
village in the subtitle of George Carlisle’s book. The correct title is:
Whiskey,
Sun & Fish: The Early Years of Fortescue, A Fishing Village on the Delaware
Bay.
We apologize for this error.
