Negative Positive
Title: Kirby would be proud
Review: In "Monster Fashion," Jarret Keene binds a variety of forms and moods together through his love for pop culture--good pop culture, mind you: comic books, horror movies, femme fatales, ventriloquist dummies--and does so without the self-conscious need to be hip that mars other works using the same subject matter. "Black Revolver," "Writing Against God," "Ventrilquism Made Easy" and "So Loved the World" are high points, and the entire first section works well as a piece. He gets a bit too cute in a few poems, but for a young poet this a remarkably strong collection, certainly far superior to anything Rita Dove had done in the last ten years, and she got to be Laureate. Robert Pinsky would probably sneer at titles like "Ava Gardner, Queen of Earthquakes," and that alone is reason to buy the book. "Monster Fashion" is well worth the price, and Keene a poet to keep an eye on.
Is the review positive or negative? 