What Do You Call This? My grandfather kept his in his pocket, taking it out only at dinner. I own one too. More emblem than tool really, but I love the way it answers my grip, perfectly weighted, light, the small crook of its handle hugging my pinky, the blade curved like the C of my own name, so that whatever I need to cut, I need to cut towards me, my thumb steadying the object, then a surgical half-sweep my grandfather used to shear away a bit of cheese, a chunk of bread, or to divvy up a peach, piling the pieces in his glass of red wine. And me, what do I use it for? To sharpen my pencil. Its crescent tooth bites into the wood, moving oh so quick and deep, this doohicky sickle, this whatsit scythe. Rongetta. Ron-get-ta. The elegance, verbal felicitousness, and subtle crafting that were the signature qualities of Carmine Starnino's debut, "The New World", are once again on display in his second book, "Credo". Whether the subject is a passport, a clothesline, an antique goblet, prayer, or archaic English words, Starnino exercises an arresting mixture of wit and wordplay that rejoices in its own resources, its own cadence and diction. "Credo" places Starnino in the forefront of a new generation of Canadian poets. Carmine Starnino is a poet living in Montreal. His first book of poetry, "The New World", was shortlisted for the 1997 A.M Klein Prize, the 1998 Gerald Lampert Memorial Prize, and given honourable mention in Quill and Quire's Best Books of 1997.
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"Starnino's [poetry] is remarkably assured, highly stylized, elegant in its simple formality ... the narrator of his poems speaks to the part of the reader that believes in a perfect thing." Marlene Cookshaw, The Malahat Review "Genuinely moving meditations on love, grief, and art's eternal durability ... From the city that blessed us with Leonard Cohen, Hubert Aquin, and transplanted Montrealer Irving Layton comes a thrilling new voice." Judith Fitzgerald, The Toronto Star "Unafraid of emotion or intellect, grounded in a reverence for ancestry and art, and buoyed by a kind of serious wonder at the joy of existence, Starnino never makes a cheap play for attention or tries to reflect his concerns forever back upon himself. Even when he writes about his family, as he often does, it is always with a marvelous combination of intimacy and artistic detachment." Tim Bowling, Books in Canada
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Unimaginative Formalism,
By "hardy_boy" (Baltimore) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Credo (The Hugh Maclennan Poetry Series) (Paperback)
This second book by up-and-coming Canadian poet, Carmine Starnino suffers from terminal pretentiousness, limp conservatism and an unforgivable bout of bad ear. I saw Starnino read from his first book in Ottawa a few years ago, and was pleasantly struck by the sincerity and youthful energy in his albeit turgid poetry. At that point, I was hoping this young poet would be able to emerge from the overbearing weight of his obvious influences: David Solway and Eric Ormsby (two writers also based in Montreal), and find his own voice. Unfortunately, what we get here, is more simplistic, untruthful, poems about the writer's Italian origins, and heavy-handed formal poems that, while showing a keen interest in word-play, utimately come off as derivative, preachy, and well... boring. In "Credo" what we end up with is a young writer who is striving to write like a "master", sounding old and tired beyond his years. Let's hope that Starnino can rediscover some the vigour that I witnessed at his reading in Ottawa, and come up with something more imaginative and fresh than what is presented in this quite disposable collection.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the credo, great stuff,
By "bambina1987" (Montreal) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Credo (The Hugh Maclennan Poetry Series) (Paperback)
The credo, which was written by my cousin carmine is good stuff... if yur the kind of person who likes to read good stuff.Have a good time,
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