SOURCE: Mobilio, Albert. Review of A Transparent Tree, by Robert Kelly. Village Voice Literary Supplement 39 (October 1985): 3.

In the following review of A Transparent Tree, Mobilio states that Kelly adds a new dimension to the short story genre.

“Telling is one thing, and hearing another,” says the ancient reciter in “Calf of Gold,” the opening tale in A Transparent Tree. Though the fictive act is infinitely interpretable, often both obvious and obscure, few writers embrace this paradox as completely as Robert Kelly has in his first collection of novellas and short stories.

Kelly, dauntingly prolific author of more than 40 books of verse, dismisses the distinction between poetry and fiction as “scarcely necessary.” The description of prose as “poetic” usually connotes elaborate metaphor and stylized diction. Kelly gives us this and more; his stories flash with insight yet thrive on enigma, seem tightly built but feel porous and open-ended, using...