Customer Reviews

Black Maria

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Kevin Young's "Black Maria" is a wonderful fever dream of a book -- 230+ pages of noir-infused poetry which captures the moody atmosphere and stacatto rhythm of old crime stories.

The energy which populates this book is intoxicating, with phrases and descriptions that somehow are both spare and lush. The characters vivid and specific, such as the singer who "was born down the road / where there ain't no road" and "auditioned for the locusts / and mocking-/birds, the chickens / who never hollered Cut." Or the boss for whom "[e]ven his walking / stick was crooked." Or a love-lorn protagonist, whose lover's "cocktail dress pours / over the bare floor," "[h]er eyelashes long / & false as an alarm" and who together, they "undress shy / as a gun."

As with all Young's book, the poetic voice is both experimental and authentic. You feel as if you are being presented something fresh and yet established, a truth angled perfectly in the light. As a writer, I loved reading "Black Maria" as the way he played with language is (as always) deeply inspiring. And as a reader, I delighted in the care he took with this collection, how precise yet loose-hipped it was. How that care even extended to the book design itself: the sections separated out with title cards like in an old silent movie; the table of contents reserved to the end so that it can serve as end credits.

Needless to say, I highly recommend this book, and this author, for anyone who loves poetry -- and perhaps even moreso, those who say they don't!

This book is a great read and in my opinion is a cinamatic version of poetry and a wonderful modern rethinking of what poetry can be. The book itself meets the definition of a hard boiled film Noir, except it is in a beautiful written prose.

While people here poetry and think stuffy and boring, this is a great read that keeps you in grossed and mesmerized. This is a phenominal read to pass the time, or even to get some thinking done. The book itself is certainly a commentary on human nature while protraying a seedy, dark underground world of crime, policing and corruption.

If you pick up one book this year, this should definately be the one. Please dont let the poetic prose fool you, it is brilliant, engrossing and interesting. There is nothing boring or dull here! There is nothing but deep, dark, atmospheric real life portrayals here. Even the characters are wonderfully developed,

For those of you who hate poetry I encourage you to open your mind, dive into this book and I promise you will never see poetry in the same light again. This is probably one of the most progressive and ingenius works you will ever find.