Washington Post Book Reviews
For You
Tuesday March 22, 2011
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FIVE BOOKS OF THE YEAR'S BEST POETRY
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Reviewed by Elizabeth Lund
The finalists for the National Book Critics Circle Award in poetry have little in common, except that each employs a distinct tool or perspective that pushes the margins of the genre. The result is like a smorgasbord, with flavors ranging from strong to subtle. Not every offering will appeal, but they all deserve a bite.
Kay Ryan 's "The Best of It" (Grove, $24) is the most inviting -- and enjoyable -- of the group. Ryan, who served two years as poet laureate of the United States, combines wordplay with wisdom that delights and resonates. The result are poems that go down easy and transform like grapes into wine. In "Spiderweb," for example, she opens with "From other/angles the/fibers look/fragile" and winds her way to "It/isn't ever/delicate/to live." The ending compels the reader to begin the poem again and focus on the landscape of the mind, which is always Ryan's subject. Each section of the book illustrates how her work has developed since 1994. The new poems are among her strongest, which makes the whole collection feel essential.
The poems in Kathleen Graber's "The Eternal City"  (Princeton Univ.; paperback, $16.95) are more dense and sprawling than Ryan's. Yet Graber, who draws on philosophy and theology, knows how to juxtapose large ideas with small moments, as in these lines: "What I know of conversion/I learned while cleaning the sticky shelves of the icebox,/a glass sheet exploding as one end hit the sink's hot suds." Her careful balancing and sensitive descriptions often feel as refreshing as a cold drink on a hot summer day. That's especially true with the heart of this collection, 12 interlocking poems that begin with quotations from Marcus Aurelius. The last line of one poem begins the next, and the opening of "Book One" reappears near the end of "Book Twelve." This series demonstrates why ancient ideas are relevant today, and why Graber deserves to be in the company of such accomplished poets.
Terrance Hayes draws on more recent -- and wide-ranging -- sources to achieve the playful, edgy writing in "Lighthead" (Penguin; paperback, $18), which won a 2010 National Book Award. The collection opens with "Lighthead's Guide to the Galaxy," a snappy poem that alludes to the science fiction classic by Douglas Adams and explores ideas about words, writing and sex. Various threads come together in these memorable closing lines: "Brothers and sisters, when you spend your nights/out on a limb, there's a chance you'll fall in your sleep." Despite that warning, Hayes is comfortable on a limb, leaping from his own experiences to jazz and hip-hop, race relations and history. Then he leaps some more, as with his pecha kucha (a Japanese form), which contain 20 related stanzas, each of which is meant to be read in 20 seconds. Those pages feature some of his strongest writing, as do other poems where his thinking -- like a pungent spice -- is controlled enough to release its full power.
Anne Carson is one of two nominees who create a new recipe for contemporary poetry. Her collection "Nox"  (New Directions, $35) is a fascinating mix of elegy and history that at times is overshadowed by the book's unusual design. A hardcover box houses the freestanding text, which, printed on one sheet, opens like an accordion. On the left side of most leaves, Carson defines words from Catullus' "Carmen 101," an elegy to his brother. On the right side, she shares the story of her brother Michael, who fled to Europe in 1978 after the death of his girlfriend and died unexpectedly in Copenhagen 22 years later. Passages about the Greek historian Herodotus interweave with Michael's story, as do other classical references, family photographs and letters. These add depth and heft without feeling like adornments. Yet the most resonant sections rely as much on Carson's honest, unadorned writing -- "It was a relief not/to have him dropping through every conversation like/a smell of burning hair" -- as on her intellectual or artistic leaps.
"One With Others"  (Copper Canyon, $20), by C.D. Wright, is an acquired taste because its blending of poetry with journalism often leans too much toward the latter. Wright recounts racial incidents surrounding Big Tree, Ark., and the march against fear there in 1969, and tells the story of her mentor, V, an African-American mother of seven. Wright uses newspaper articles, oral histories, hymns, lists and more in her account of Big Tree, which struggled with bigotry and forced integration. The march and the detainment of African-American youths changed the opinions of many residents. Readers will feel a shift themselves, especially toward the end of the collection, where the author writes, "Look into the dark heart and you will see what the dark eats other than/your heart." Such phrasing, along with Wright's use of repetition, finally creates momentum and cohesion.
Elizabeth Lund was the poetry editor of the Christian Science Monitor.
Copyright 2011 Washington Post Writers Group
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SKIPPING A BEAT
Sarah Pekkanen
Washington Square
ISBN 978-1451609820
327 pages
$15
Reviewed by Nancy Robertson
The heroine of Sarah Pekkanen's second novel, "Skipping a Beat," is a 30-something party planner who lives in a multimillion-dollar mansion in Northern Virginia. When we first meet Julia Dunhill, she is finalizing the details for a fundraising event. Clad in three-inch Stuart Weitzman heels while balancing a tray of expensive cupcakes, she cuts a sharp figure. But all that is about to change: Her husband, Michael, is in cardiac arrest at his downtown office. Michael survives, but Pekkanen, who lives in Chevy Chase, Md., suggests from the outset that his heart attack will not be the book's only tragedy.
For Julia, Michael's endurance is itself a kind of calamity. He emerges from near-death with a new outlook: No longer enamored of material success, he wants to sell his company and give millions to charity. Aghast at the prospect of losing her luxurious lifestyle, Julia contemplates divorce. She is not as shallow as that sounds; she is a well-drawn and emotionally complex character whose foibles and fears will resonate with readers beyond her upscale Zip code.
Weaving past and present, Pekkanen traces Julia and Michael's relationship to its beginnings in an impoverished West Virginia town. Back then the couple were simply Julie and Mike. Julie's father was a compulsive gambler; Mike's mother left his family when he was 12. Mike was determined to "have enough money to do whatever I want." Julie sensed that Mike would make her "safe, in every possible way." After high school, Mike and Julie packed their belongings in Hefty bags and headed for Washington in a battered car. They worked their way through college -- Mike at Georgetown and Julie at the University of Maryland -- while living in a tiny, roach-infested apartment in Tenleytown.
As they crept up the economic ladder, they became Michael and Julia. Michael launched a new product, a healthy, low-sugar water called DrinkUp. (For advice on the nuts and bolts of beverage entrepreneurship, Pekkanen, a former journalist, turned to Honest Tea co-founder Seth Goldman .) Soon, Oprah was pictured with a bottle of DrinkUp, and Michael's company was worth millions. Julia had more than she'd ever imagined, but her husband's quest for money was insatiable.
In this intelligent and entertaining novel, Pekkanen shows how quickly -- in the skip of a heartbeat -- everything can change. The questions her heroine faces about love, money and fate may be timeworn, but Pekkanen inserts enough humor and psychological insight to elevate the plot beyond the expected. She also offers a delightful slice of life inside the Beltway.
Nancy Robertson is a producer of "The Diane Rehm Show."
Copyright 2011 Washington Post Writers Group
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