The Hard Fifty Farm: What Becomes Of The Broken Hearted
Perzine, Jessie Duke, Pioneer Press, pioneerspress.com/catalog/zines/4184, $4.50
This issue of The Hard Fifty Farm confronts issues of love and the sense of failure; discontent versus potential finality; parental uncertainty and deep sincerity offering a genuine sense of humanity. I found many of the stories to be somewhat incomplete in which characters were introduced but would vaguely disappear into the background. While this is would often be a negative asset, I found it rather appropriate for a perzine.
The Hard Fifty Farm is a reflection upon the fresh years of the author’s marriage; the uprooting and resettling involved in starting a family. Each of Jessie Duke’s retellings of personal experiences uniquely breathes with a sense of vitality and sincerity; raw and honest about her and her husband’s mistakes and worries. Each story is described as a memory; they evoke the mental image of picking through a family album of strangers while gaining insight into who they were. The zine concludes with a personal letter from the author to her friend Duke, which offers implicit insight into her acceptance of the highs and lows associated with transitiong into a new lifestyle. “The cities feel like talking and the country feels like listening. I know I need both, but I know that the listening is more important.”
For anyone who, as a child, was forced to move from school to school, this zine will strike a chord as it reveals the real interpersonal issues newly married adults will experience as they go blindly into their new lives while trying to maintain their sense of identity, and their marriage. (Andrew Melanson)