Customer Reviews

66 galaxie: poems (Bakeless Prize)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The worst thing about poetry is that it too often smacks of a wholly effete enterprise; much of the verse that seeks to remedy this is dull or crude. But 66 galaxie has the precision and subtlety of the most accomplished writing as well as the generosity and resonance of poular music and film... utterly rare, it's a book that appeals to sensibilities high, low and middle. Distribute this book amongst your poetry-loathing pals, who will be surprised and, I think, delighted.

this is one of the best books of poetry ever written. there's nothing else like it out there. plus, the girl on the cover is hot i've seen her in real life. m loncar always has hot girls around him...

66 galaxie is angry and poignant, breathless and sharper than sharp. At times the space around poems lends to their haunting quality, other times--as with "the king of refrigerator poems"-- bravado and swagger is infused with an understated sadness, a difficult honesty. I'm glad I bought the book.

In response to the angry person who wrote the EXPERIMENTAL-NOT review below, I'm all for the terrific and innovative works of Jarnot, Brown, Stroffolino et al., but since when is experimentation about who you know? Does the word "experimental" automatically, and in some way that I'm not getting, connote community -- moreover a specific community of youngish poets intellectually based around NYC? I haven't checked the OED, but I'm pretty sure none of these factors figure into the meaning or etymology of experimentation.

I'll take the rest of that critique for what it is, but its closing remark is a ridiculous snipe based on an even more ridiculous presumption: to wit, that only some forms and agencies of experimentation (or only one of them!) may be counted as valid. Now really, does that make sense? Let's consider the possibility that if loncar's work attempts a kind of experimentation which exists outside the purview of what is after all a relatively cohesive, successful, and self-consciously avant-garde group of poets, then perhaps his work is in some way just that much more experimental.

Fabulous. Is it factory or custom? I can only hope there is something new coming out soon from this gifted young writer.

I received 66 Galaxie as a gift and I have since given it to several friends, all of whom (at least purportedly) love it. I will stay out of the debate as to whether it is experimental or not, but it is certainly provactive and entertaining.

My complaint about much post-modern and other contemporary poetry is that it seems like an inside joke. I am sure that it is terrific fun for those authors and their friends, but it can leave me cold (I am also willing to accept that perhaps I am just too dumb to understand). Mr. loncar, on the other hand, is able to experiment (oops, sorry, put another, noncontraversial word there) with his chosen art without making his work inaccessable. Heck, isn't the point of poetry or any art form to communicate your ideas in an interesting way? (But, the ideas do need to be communicated).

If only the author's musical works were available to the masses, he'd be able to truly show himself to be the Leonard Cohen of his generation (well no, I think he is better musically than Mr. Cohen).

In any case, I highly recommend this collection.

66 galaxie is an amazing collection of work by a truly talented artist. It is a rich mixture of fiction, roadtrip, and poetry. The themes of the work are varied but fit well together: journey, landscape, automobiles, and more. To describe 66 galaxie as hip seems trite, but where else are you going to get references to mix-tapes and refrigerator-poet's by a poet who weaves his words so skillfully?

Haiku like in style and influenced by multi-media artforms, I recommend 66 galaxie to anyone that wants to indulge in contemporary poetry that is not afraid to experiment.

This book reads like so many pictures sprinkled on the page in words. It is an entirely creative endeavor. m loncar even includes entirely blank pages to indicate a shift in scenes and exaggerate strange pauses. His poetry works like something very visual, and he is very aware of this-- when you read his poetry you aren't sure if you're reading words or watching films. What makes this book work is that it loosely traces a narrative throughout the pages but it creates this story in a very refreshing, creative manner.

The poetry is clean, no doubt, and the poet is talented, but I couldn't help but ask the question, "Who cares?" When it was light, it was ticklish and not moving, and I never found it dark. Slick, yes--the book was slick, too slick. It must've been a slow year for the Bakeless Prize, for this manuscript to have won it. It seems that, if the author were to focus on the depth of his humor, and on the depth of his "intellectual statement," future efforts might exceed this one considerably--for, again, I repeat that he IS talented. Right now, though, he is irrelevant.

because I like to return to it, revisit scenes and images. I love this book, the way it feels like a movie you want to watch over and over and over. But also like a car wreck: you can't look for too long or it starts to really tear at you. There's so much here.