by J. Flaherty , illustrated by Neil Dale ‧ RELEASE DATE: Dec. 8, 2018
A bracing, poetic call for readers to break loose from their chains.
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A collection of poems battles against groupthink and fake freedom.
In the famous “Grand Inquisitor” chapter from The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoyevsky imagines a conversation between a medieval Spanish priest and Jesus. The Inquisitor’s point in this exchange is that liberty is terrifying—and that real freedom is both a rarer and more daring thing than most people acknowledge. Flaherty (Ebbing and Fibbing, 2012) sings a similar tune in his delightfully idiosyncratic new verse volume. In “Myopic Freedom,” he writes: “We think we’re free / because we’re not shackled / and we get to choose which shoes to wear today. / We think we’re free / because we’re not kept in a cage / and can move from the sofa to the supermarket / when our favorite snacks need replenishing.” For the author, obviously, such “freedom” is nominal at best, and readers are actually all in irons, whether they care to admit it or not. Flaherty, on the other hand, is looking for a truer liberty: “There must be more to liberty than / being free from foreign rule, as our own rulers’ / star is diminishing, with them on their way / to becoming clones of their foes, / leaving me baying at my Betsy Ross flag: / gimme liberty I can smell!” The search for this autonomy is the throughline of this piquant collection. In it, the author returns to a few crucial messages: Think for yourself; question authority; and don’t tire in your quest for real independence. These are powerful lessons and valuable antidotes to complacency and apathy. And they are skillfully delivered in rousing poetry. Compressed into deftly crafted stanzas, Flaherty’s exhortations jump right off the page. And he mixes them with several pencil-drawn images by debut illustrator Dale that add variety and a rough charm to the whole enterprise. The book’s only flaw is the author’s diction, which sometimes feels fancy or forced. For instance, in a poem about a group of antelopes, he writes: “When a predator was sensed approaching / the herd’s chronic druthers was fleeing.” The passive voice in the first line robs it of its drama, and the phrase “chronic druthers” in the second is both nonstandard and just plain awkward. Flaherty should feel free to keep streamlining his otherwise effective poetry.
A bracing, poetic call for readers to break loose from their chains.Pub Date: Dec. 8, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-692-08771-8
Page Count: 106
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Aug. 13, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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More by J. Flaherty
BOOK REVIEW
by J. Flaherty
by Katie Keridan ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 2, 2018
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.
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Keridan’s poetry testifies to the pain of love and loss—and to the possibility of healing in the aftermath.
The literary critic Geoffrey Hartman once wrote that literature—and poetry, in particular—can help us “read the wound” of trauma. That is, it can allow one to express and explain one’s deepest hurts when everyday language fails. Keridan appears to have a similar understanding of poetry. She writes in “Foreword,” the opening work of her debut collection, that “pain frequently uses words as an escape route / (oh, how I know).” Many words—and a great deal of pain—escape in this volume, but the result is healing: “the ending is happy / the beginning was horrific / so let’s start there.” The book, then, tracks the process of recovery in the wake of suffering, and often, this suffering is brought on by romantic relationships gone wrong. An early untitled poem opens, “I die a little / taking pieces of me to feed the fire / that keeps him warm / you don’t notice that it’s a slow death / when you’re disappearing little by little.” The author’s imagery here—of the self fueling the dying fire of love—is simultaneously subtle and wrenching. But the poem’s message, amplified elsewhere in the book, is clear: We go wrong if we destructively give ourselves over to others, and healing comes only when we turn our energies back to our own good. Later poems, therefore, reveal that self-definition often equals strength. The process is painful but salutary; when “you’re left unprotected / surrounded by chaos with nothing you / can depend on / except yourself / and that’s when you gather the pieces / of the life you lost / and use them to build the life you want.” The “life you want” is an elusive goal, and the author knows that the path to self-definition is fraught with peril—but her collection may give strength to those who walk it.
Therapeutic, moving verse from a promising new talent.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-72770-538-6
Page Count: 196
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Jan. 9, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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by William Poe ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 16, 2015
Downbeat but often engaging poems and stories.
A slim volume of largely gay-themed writings with pessimistic overtones.
Poe (Simple Simon, 2013, etc.) divides this collection of six short stories and 34 poems into five sections: “Art,” “Death,” “Relationship,” “Being,” and “Reflection.” Significantly, a figurative death at the age of 7 appears in two different poems, in which the author uses the phrase “a pretended life” to refer to the idea of hiding one’s true nature and performing socially enforced gender roles. This is a well-worn trope, but it will be powerful and resonant for many who have struggled with a stigmatized identity. In a similar vein, “Imaginary Tom” presents the remnants of a faded relationship: “Now we are imaginary friends, different in each other’s thoughts, / I the burden you seek to discard, / you the lover I created from the mist of longing.” Once in a while, short story passages practically leap off of the page, such as this evocative description of a seedy establishment in Lincoln, Nebraska: “It was a dimly lit bar that smelled of rodent piss, with barstools that danced on uneven legs and made the patrons wonder if they were drunker than they thought.” In “Valéry’s Ride,” Poe examines the familial duties that often fall to unmarried and childless people, keeping them from forming meaningful bonds with others. In this story, after the double whammy of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita hits Louisiana, Valéry’s extended family needs him more than ever; readers will likely root for the gay protagonist as he makes the difficult decision to strike out on his own. Not all of Poe’s main characters are gay; the heterosexual title character in “Mrs. Calumet’s Workspace,” for instance, pursues employment in order to escape the confines of her home and a passionless marriage. Working as a bookkeeper, she attempts to carve out a space for herself, symbolized by changes in her work area. Still, this story echoes the recurring theme of lives unlived due to forces often beyond one’s control.
Downbeat but often engaging poems and stories.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-5168-3693-2
Page Count: 120
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: March 5, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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