Customer Reviews

Breathing the Monster Alive (Bright Hill Press Word & Image Series)

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Eric Gansworth has done it again! The mind of Gansworth is a mystery to me, even after three novels and a book of poems! "Breathing" is not about reservation politics. It's not about adaptation. And it's not about Native tradition. And yet it is about all of that and more. Through the myth of big foot, Gansworth explores belief in the supernatural. At one points he draws a comparison of religious belief to that of big foot belief. And in the end, perhaps it is Belief in general that people need. As always, Gansworth doesn't give us simple answers, and he doesn't let us off the proverbial hook. One poem, "Jasper Applebee Finds Himself in the Liquidation Bin" could even be called Existential (broadly speaking).

But it's the images that you'll never forget. His paintings are once again displayed throughout the book. He takes his poetic themes and turns the brush to them. One image even sevre as a visual reference to God as Big Foot. And the imagerary in his poetry is, as usual, concrete and "catchy". If his work was a pop song, I'd still be humming the tune of the poem "Jasper Applebee Shaves for the First Time".

But I still wonder... is Applebee actually the Fouke Monster?