The Rialto Books Review Vol.026
AVAILABLE NOW
The Rialto Books Review Vol.026 is now available for purchase. For this edition we are pleased to offer you pieces by four excellent writers for your enjoyment.
We begin with Kyle Impini’s “What Real Killers Know”. While Anne, triumphing in how her recent marriage has improved her standing in the family, recounts a recent dispute with her neighbors to her aunts at Thanksgiving, she slowly realizes her understanding of what occurred may be entirely wrong.
This is followed by “The Saxophonist” by A. A. Kostas, a poignant response to our isolationist age. Saxophonist Benji, having recently recovered from mono, debates whether to show up at a gig to perform with his fellow musicians. When he decides to show up, he gains a new understanding of what it means to be an individual, without being alone.
Two poems, “Power Outage.” and “Driving, Sunset.” by Joseph Teti show amply how the musical richness of traditional form may be intertwined with the hallmarks of our fast-paced world, with its iPhones and strip-mall supermarkets.
We close with “Three Left the Nest” by Adam Kozak, in which a father watches with his young daughter as a robin builds her nest and raises her chicks. From this unfolds the perennial tragedy of youth’s first confrontation with violence and death.
As we enter 2025, we hope you will continue to join us in the pleasure of reading the best of modern letters. In the meantime, we hope you enjoy these excerpts from Vol.026 of The Rialto Books Review.
What Real Killers Know
by Kyle Impini
Anne’s family questioned her life choices a whole lot less after she began bringing Lane to their holiday gatherings, and hardly at all once they had married. He was exactly what her mother and two aunts had always imagined for her—a man with a tidy haircut and a job whose description was so boring it must be stable. This Thanksgiving, the first after a quiet, courthouse wedding and the purchase of their first home, had been the best Thanksgiving in Anne’s adult life. With Lane at her side, her decision to go into social work read as selfless—noble, even— instead of some soft-brained cause that young, sensitive women with no problems of their own undertake. Anne felt like she once again had a place in her family. She was no longer in between the kids’ and adults’ tables. She had arrived. …
The Saxophonist
by A. A. Kostas
Benji is lying in bed and moping at the saxophone standing in the corner. The saxophone is glowering back at him, annoyed. Understandably. They’ve fallen out. Frigid former lovers distanced by a gulf of resentment and broken promises. The saxophone bears less of the culpability and Benji knows this, which of course makes him even more resentful. They haven’t touched in months. …
“Power Outage.” and “Driving, Sunset.” by Joseph Teti may be read in their entirety in Vol.026 of The Rialto Books Review.
Three Left the Nest
by Adam Kozak
“See how she plunders the hanging basket? The material is perfect for her nest: strong, dry, fibrous. Look, there she goes, a few fibers in her beak and off to her nest.”
Stephen spoke to Mary sitting in his lap as they looked out the open window, watching as the robin flew to her nest in the crook of a low branch in the elm a few yards away. …
You can read this journal with others on Papertrail.