Breakers [Paperback]

Paul Violi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2000

"The best satirical mind in contemporary poetry" --Andrei Codrescu.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In his first 10 books, Violi's alchemical dream to change jokey comedy into pure poetry has placed him among Charles North, Tony Towle and Bill Zavatsky in the Shaggy Dog Studies department of the New York School. As with those poets at their lyric best, the poet presented in these seven long poems and series eschews puns, in-jokes, and clich?s in favor of a reasonable romanticism amidst the mud and debris of an everyday life barely restraining its absurdity. "You can sigh like a distance" he writes in "Sputter and Blaze," a love-poem set in a propeller factory, later admonishing, "night-soft flutter close your eyes/ saying not yes not no not maybe." "Triptych," a poem in the form of TV program listings, is a chance for a beautiful haiku sneak attack, and "Harmatan," an early diaristic work melding life in New York City and along the Hudson with Peace Corps work in Nigeria, sustains its exuberance across 49 remarkable anecdotes. Equally inventive if a bit overarch are the French Revolution-as-blockbuster film "King Nasty," and the periplum-cum-crossword puzzle "Wet Bread and Roasted Pearls." In all, though, Violi's a humane vision of laughter, and Breakers is a breakthrough collection. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Violi can't resist a bad pun: "it was a doge-eat-doge world alright" quips an early poem. Fortunately, this hefty selection, from five volumes published between 1977 and 1998, traces the growth, beyond what can sound like Ezra Pound with a bad ear, of a mature and complex voice. While some readers may be put off by the length and experimental nature of some of these poems, others will appreciate, at least in the later work, a wit that tunes absurdity into sharp literary and cultural irony: "we whose hearts have been gripped/ by life, scoff at the idea of art/ as mere ornamentation: so they/ seem to proclaim,/ the three statues that adorn/ the neighbor's lawn, plastic deer/ with real bullet holes in them." The reference to Marianne Moore might make one wish for some of her spunk in "Harmetan," a long poem detailing a six-month stint in Nigeria. But the more recent "Wet Bread and Roasted Pearls," a Hudson River Valley love poem that interweaves acrostic clues (according to the note, the numbers follow Fibonacci progressions) with natural description, is delightfully nutty and moving besides. Recommended, especially for libraries in the New York region.DEllen Kaufman, Dewey Ballantine LLP Law Lib., New York
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Coffee House Press (June 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1566890993
• ISBN-13: 978-1566890991
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,646,854 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Violi has a voice, April 30, 2002

By 

paul (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breakers (Paperback)

Paul Violi's work in Breakers shows imagination, wit and sincerity. He tackles subjects such as family and age pondering his fortieth birthday in "Little Testament" to travel in "Harmatan", a play by play of talking severed heads in "Little Nasty" and dreams and writing in "The Curious Builder". An amazing facet of Violi's work is his ability to keep the poetry fresh, exciting and on the edge for long poems. For example, "Little Testament" is 19 pages and "Harmantan" is 55 pages. Violi has the amazing talent of being able to go back and forth between the abstract and the concrete -- perhaps best demonstrated in "Sputter and Blaze". Perhaps the best way to describe Violi's work is that of a play by play announcer who tackles ridiculous topics yet is able to show a deeper meaning and care toward the human condition as a whole. Along with "Little Nasty", Violi demonstrates this with a crossword puzzle on "Wet Bread and Roasted Pearls" and with a museum from selections of "Hazards of Imagery".
Maybe Violi's work speaks best for itself, he writes in "coda":
I lie in parentheses
amused by how I can trace
in the glistening lines of this canoe
such a dear part of you
and between night and day
sweep up an armful of immediate odes
imagining I can lay them
before you . . .

Call Violi postmodern or modern, but he is a contemporary poet who has found a voice that is distinctly his own. His poetry is art yet from seeing him read and in reading his poems out loud there is a distinct tone that makes them pleasing to both the eye on the page and the ear as the words pass by.

5.0 out of 5 stars An impressive, memorable, and literate anthology., September 7, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breakers (Paperback)

Breakers is an impressive and memorable anthology of Paul Violi's poetry and aptly serves to introduce and make accessible some of his best work to a broader audience than would be otherwise possible. At The Chapel Cardinal Finale: Here is a painting on wood/by an unknown hand,/of hearty fishermen in an open boat,/hauling a cow out of the Bay of Naples./This painting smells:/an unfortunate odor no one/can eradicate or name.//Here, too, is a painting of the savior/from whose eyes many have attested/they have seen real tears fall./And I for one believe it to be so./For I have heard this said/of other paintings/and recalling how they are all/so unbelievably bad,/so poorly executed,/I have concluded that it is/the painters' utter ineptitude/that has made their very subject weep./Such is the miraculous power of art.