Passing Jacks
by Vangerry Oldham

There is no denying the value that can be found in Passing Jacks. For this book is a collection of enjoyable short stories, poems, and plays. All of which are centered around island life in the Bahamas. Within this book you will find stories of imaginative telling, for example the tale of a wealth being discovered with the help of a drunk pig. The poetry is a pleasure to read and touches the soul, as poetry should.

What I found most interesting is that there a multitude of plays contained in Passing Jacks that I personally would like to see produced. Anytime the experiences and opinions of another culture can be displayed for all to enjoy we should all embrace the experience and learn. In this regard alone the book is worth the purchase price.

However, every story, poem, and play has been tossed into this volume with little regard to order. An index isn't included and I found this disconcerting considering the size of this collection. The author even points out the intentional design behind this. But it would be nice for the appearance of an index, in the least, to aid the reader in finding that favorite entry. The other oddity is that the page numbers are centered at the top and the author and title of the book are centered at the bottom.

None of this is reason to pass this one over; the book contains far too much value for anyone to ignore. Passing Jacks remains a worthy addition to anyone's personal library.

Gloomwing Review by David W. Hoffman

Pages: 182
Softcover ISBN: 1-4116-6872-3
E-Book ($5.00) Softcover ($13.18) available at http://www.lulu.com/content/169542

Vangerry Oldham's Lulu Storefront