Review by Mack Hassler
An early issue of Clutch was one of the first collections I reviewed, long before Luczak had his idea of editing his series. The geography of Robert Zoschke reaches up and to the East toward the delta of the Menominee into Lake Michigan, so it is a good contrast to Chad Faries, who at one point, says Iron County points more toward Wisconsin than toward lower Michigan. Zoschke points more toward Copper Country up along the Keweenaw, and continually he visits Splake in Calumet. He likes it in the winter.
Splake himself started out as a high school English teacher (I think down near Grand Rapids). He had a conversion, changed his name to model himself on Kilgore Trout by Vonnegut, moved into the woods up North, and became very Beat. Most of what Zoschke does points right at Splake. Neither Zoschke nor Splake has any of the cleverness nor invention of Faries. Lately Splake and his editor have become very interested in Haiku. They are both good at this tight little form. Maybe Splake is coming back to the “intellectualism” of his training. My favorite haiku by Splake in his collection is on page 144:
“lost in blinding wint er blizzard
trapped by snow imposible to escape
like being inside woman’s mind”
The bleakness and emptiness of Splake Country I have sseen before. It is not he same as the wit and masterywe see with Faries. Splake does publish some Haiku that are interesting in UP Reader #8 (pp. 16-17). And Writers can Change. But for this review, I like the work on Iron County much more than the bleakness up in Copper Country. Like Mikel Classen, Splake is very skilled with his camera. Buy this Clutch just to view the depressing photography.
