Customer Reviews

5 Degrees and Other Poems (Poets, Penguin)

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It must all be true. At least, that's what you think when reading Chistopher's poems--they are fantastic, but they seem to be factual (you want to believe that Houdini could dog paddle under a sheet of ice for 2 hours looking for his escape, and you want to believe that John Dee could speak with Angels). This is one of his gifts and failings: his writing is beautifully flat. "Flat" must be counted a pejorative when speaking of writing; but in this collection it is exactly this quality that suspends our disbelief. Granted it must be that Christopher has found subjects that "work" within this framework. All this sounds ambivalent, and I don't mean it to. This is a wonderful book, especially for those not normally poetry readers; it is accessible--one reader has said there's something in it for everyone, and this is surely true.

5 Degrees is the title of what is a long poem in 35 sections--each section stands on its own but is made stronger and more interesting by its placement within the whole. Odd comparisons are made by way of recurring words, characters, elements, historical persons, mythology, and of course the style. Houdini is the subject of a couple poems, Van Gogh as well, and John Dee, an English mathematician and scientist "friend to Sir Walter Ralegh/and Thomas Harriot." (Harriot and Ralegh are strong presences in Christophers fantastic novel, "Veronica"). We see the Nazi's burn copies of "The Tempest" in one poem and read that "John Davis, explorer and navigator, died the night/The Tempest was first performed in London."; Iron makes its way into several poems as element from the stars that unites us through history, but also simply as the "color" of most of these poems (many seem to take place in winter).

One cannot show you enough here. Each section in this long poem makes you think of a different earlier poem and causes you to reflect upon that poem differently. What we learn throughout is made explicit in section 15: "And Shakespeare, who understood that the hard/facts he pillaged from Plutarch were prefigured in myths--the wellspring of history--". This is exactly what Christopher has given us--a veritable encyclopedia of information (factual, fantastical, mythological, historical), shaken up in his cupped hands, like the bones used to tell fortunes, and let fall to the table under Fate's guiding hand (simply peruse section 25 to get the idea). His is an art of resurfaced truth and rearrangement (he mines for Iron ore and can also seek it in the Pole Star).

This is my favorite of his works (although I did read the novel "Veronica" several times), and of his previous and subsequent work, this is by far the most even. I do also enjoy his first book, "On Tour with Rita"--and find it has poems that would work very nicely within the framework of "5 Degrees".

Nicholas Christopher is truthfully one of the most well-written and introspective poets of the 20th century. Anyone can find something in his poetry that they appreciate and value greatly. "Hibiscus Tea" is one of the most awe-inspiring and beautiful poems full of imagery I have ever read.

Put quite simply, this is the best book of poetry that I have ever seen. Christopher's verse is infinitely compelling and his scope so broad that every reader can take something away from a perusal of it. I would recommend this book to anyone and everyone.

Christopher is one our most intelligent and inventive young poets. The title poem is the work of a wonderful imagination and exhibits the poet's technical virtuosity. "The Quinero Sisters," is one of the finest love poems I have read in some time.