Review by Booklist Review
Whereas Smith's previous book of poetry, Primer (2016), dealt in nuance and innuendo, he shows a more easily humorous side to his writing here, while still addressing serious topics with breathtaking severity. Smith is at his funniest when name-dropping poets, whether contemporary (""When I read Louise Glück I know I talk too much"") or legendary (""Elizabeth Bishop is like Meryl Streep / you have to say she's the best whether you believe it or not""). But Smith also tackles difficult subjects head-on, like the wickedness of closed-minded family members (""Mom told me to get AIDS and die""), or the mortality of poets (""He won the Pulitzer Prize / and died. She won the Pulitzer / and also died""). Smith is perhaps at his prime when he veers deep into untouched taboo, as in a poem about 9/11 called ""When the Towers Came Down"" (""Someone joked / it was literally raining men"") or the numerous incantations of a commonly deployed pejorative for gay men, which Smith doesn't so much reclaim as render nearly banal. Smith's poetry proves endlessly provocative, often difficult, but never more of the same.--Diego Báez Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The direct and vulnerable fourth collection from Smith (Blue on Blue Ground) explores queer identity, masculinity, and mortality, informed by the American obsession with celebrity in its various forms ("My Brad should be Pitt. My Daniel// Craig. My Hardy/ Thomas and Tom"). Smith exalts in sonic play and striking candor, recasting the confessional mode by refusing self-importance. Poems such as "A Critical History of Contemporary American Poetry," which, among less flattering comparisons, likens Elizabeth Bishop's critical reputation to Meryl Streep's, reveal the poet's impulse for satire in order to deflate literary gravitas. The speakers here exhibit their neuroses with a humorous self-awareness: "I'm mean to men// with perfect throats who take selfies in the mirror/ at the gym: let doors close on them in stores,// never say excuse me if I bump into them." In "Cosmopolitan Greetings," the speaker admits: "I'm not afraid to go to the dentist because you're only naked from the neck up." These antiheroic personas refuse pat epiphanies yet draw affecting meaning from painful experiences (such as encounters with homophobia) and news reports that show humanity at its worst. Smith's irreverence elsewhere provides credibility to his political outrage and genuine pathos to the narrative of his mother's cancer diagnosis. This newest collection offers an expansive, diverse consideration of identity and grief. (Oct.)
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