title: The Book of Men: Poems
author:  Dorianne Laux 
description: Laux's fifth collection continues in her descriptive, storytelling vein: the at-hand, the matter-of-fact, the day-to-day are rendered in an earnest tone both sensuous and nostalgic. Something of a baby boomer's field guide, this book portrays the legacy of the 1960s from the perspective of one who has survived and must look back on what that decade did and didn't change. And so, the Vietnam War, Bob Dylan, the Beatles, Mick Jagger, Cher, Frank O'Hara, and Superman all make appearances. Laux's treatment of this era isn't without sentimentality, but her true aim is more probing, more elegiac: Superman "sits on a tall building/ smoking pot, holding white plumes in,/ palliative for the cancerous green glow/ spreading its tentacles"; "It's 2010 and the doctors have given him another year in Metropolis." Laux's younger self has grown up, no longer that girl who knew "it was the summer of love/ and I wore nothing under my cotton vest,/ my Mexican skirt." Laux brings the book toward its close reconsidering women's bodiesspecifically their breastsand how they change: "your mother's are strangers to you now, your sister's/ were always bigger.../ your lover's breasts, deep under the ground,/ you weep beside the little mounds of earth/ lightly shoveled over them." (Feb.) <br />(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Dorian softened his tone. ‘A lady doesn’t build ships. Therefore Miss Sutton
  isn’t a lady. Indeed, she can’t be a lady by the very definition of what
  Society says a lady is. Do you see my point?’
  
  A furrow of twin lines formed between her eyes, the look not unattractive. It
  stirred him to want to do something about it, to erase the consternation. He
  wasn’t used to such chivalrous feelings.
  
  ‘I understand your meaning quite well and I respectfully disagree.’ Elise’s
  chin went up a fraction in defiance.
  
  ‘You will have to choose,’ Dorian insisted. ‘My being here or not is the least
  of your worries if you’re thinking about your reputation. Building your yacht
  is enough to sink you in most circles. No pun intended.’
  
  Instinctively, he moved close to her, his hands going to her forearms in a
  gentle grip to make his point, to make her see reason.
  
  She swallowed nervously, the pulse at the base of her throat leaping in
  reaction to his nearness. ‘Again, I disagree,’ she said 