Customer Reviews

5 Satires

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Klein's poetry is hard to describe to those who have not read his work. It is very humane, subtle, and structured, yet the poems never shy away from strong critiques of human impulses. The poems in this collection, though strong statements in and of themselves, work together to create a tone unlike any other poet's. The effect is multi-fold: the couplets, like those in Klein's previous work "Monica," are dazzling and witty to a far greater extent than the lines of any freer form. The content, ordered by the construction of the lines, is structured and readable. The result is that while the reader may laugh, he laughs not only because the poem is wicked, perverse, and funny, but also because the structure of the poem serves the points of the poem, thereby allowing the poem to seem true. And nothing seems to escape the satire of Klein's poems: the ineptitude of scholars who teach "ethics in product design," the vacuous amores of NYU students, the marshy texture of a previous lover's buttocks, the emptiness of cliche remarks supposedly muttered in earnest; all are evaluated and hilariously described in the poems of 5 Satires. You will be missing an opportunity to read the great poems of the latter half of this century if you do not seek out each of Klein's works as they are made available. Browntrout publishers have really outdone themselves w/r/t the product packaging. The book itself is square, with a wonderful black cover featuring raised white lettering. The print looks as though it has been stamped upon the brilliantly white page by a blacksmith. The appearance is so beguiling, that the book would make a great gift to those with aesthetic concerns alone. It is a bargain, and I urge you to read the book.