Experiencing New Mexico: Lyrical and Critical Essays [Paperback]

Hank Malone (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1998

Hank Malone's most recent work, a collection of essays set squarely in the American Southwest, explores many of the large and perennial themes of any era by focussing on the current time, the last decade of the 20th century, in New Mexico.

This is a book about Now, the realities of now, and the magic of now. New Mexico's long and ancient string of historical details have been included in the essays mostly to create the accuracy of the current tone of the age, the atmosphere and general thinking of the place.

Malone ranges wide. Beginning his collection with an essay about the misleading romance of New Mexico, an idealization aimed at tourist-dollars, he leads the reader on to a startling and haunting contemplation of the great clouds of the Southwest, including their relationship to Southwestern mythology and the bedrock issues of water and nurture in this part of America.

Albuquerque's real-estate madness, the impact of importing "high tech" industry into the region, and the poet's exploration of New Mexico as a "huge estate sale" all bring the reader up to speed as to what's happening to much of the formerly uninhabited regions of America. He pursues the universal themes within the specific events of daily life in New Mexico in the 1990's.

Malone tells the tale with two voices, often interlaced. He frequently seems to sing with his writing, using long and lovely lyrical lines of visual precision and the poets frequently disarming sense of hyperbole to seal the articulation of his passion for New Mexico. The other voice, more critical and examining, frequently goes for the jugular vein, chasing after the more outrageous regional pomposity and prevarication with grinding teeth that make their points quickly, almost bloodlessly.

This is a densely-rich and deceptively brief book, full of humor and table-pounding, rich with factual details from every quarter; a book full of observation, question, wild rides, and tentative conclusions graced with a breath-taking common sense. It is a book that will further intrigue the reader about New Mexico, adding always new layers, and always uncovering.

The tourist will never be the same after reading Experiencing New Mexico. The jaded eye will open in the pages and turn a bit wider and more turquoise. Just when you think you've heard it all, seen it all, Malone will likely surprise you by turning the mysterious upside-down again, and make it all clear, and yet keep it throbbing as well with the eternal mysteries.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

These essays came gradually, in fits of passion and thought about my diverse experiences living here in New Mexico. There was no thought about a book, not until the pages began to seriously accumulate, and not until the disparate direction of my thoughts began to find a center.

In these essays, some of which began as poems, I discovered how much of modern New Mexico was, for me, a place full of secrets. So much about what really intrigued me about the place occurred when I began to scratch below the surface of things, when I went underneath, finding myself pulling up some of the magic and subconscious life back out of the ruins that largely cover the state. For myself, part of writing these essays involved resurrecting aspect of truth that had been buried and covered-up by the fairly recent assault of what some call "corporate civilization" into the American Southwest.

What magic there is here, in the Southwest, lies below the veneer surfaces created by the Chamber of Commerce and Corporate mythmakers working hand in hand. Perhaps I am largely alone in this matter, but I am utterly put-off by the efforts of business to turn the Southwest into a 'de facto' theme park, a Disneyland surrounded by mesas, eroded with arroyos. Too much of everything these days is all about money, and who's to stop it? I sought to write about a few modest, eternal, and inexpensive miracles in New Mexico, and to list a few barking complaints at the same time.

-Hank Malone

About the Author

Hank Malone, and his wife, a professional graphics artist, live and work in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They moved to the region in the early 1990's, after visiting the state regularly for over 20 years, visiting friends, and touring the region.

Malone is a former Michigan resident, who has been a community organizer, radio talk-show host, and for many years a clinical psychotherapist. Malone has published five chapbooks, five books of Poems, one of which was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. He has received grants from the NEA and Academy of American Poets. He has read his work regularly at many American Universities, and has been widely anthologized, including poems in The Maverick Poets. He is listed in Contemporary Authors, the primary directory in the world for author information. He is a regular writer for Gale Research, one the world's largest publishers of reference books.

His last book, New Mexico Haiku, was also published by Poetic License Press.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 54 pages
• Publisher: Poetic License Press; 1 edition (April 1, 1998)
• ISBN-10: 1888923040
• ISBN-13: 978-1888923049
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,880,682 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Under the Enchantment there's gold and crawling scorpions., June 19, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Experiencing New Mexico: Lyrical and Critical Essays (Paperback)

Living in Albuquerque, I was drawn to see what Malone made of the southwest in the 1990's. It is a collection that might have been much longer, yet it says enough. The surface of New Mexico is driven by the tourist-markets, and what we sell here is Enchantment and fairy-tales. Malone has scratched beneath the surface of things here, and has found plenty of gold nuggets and lots of scorpions, but mostly he has usefully de-mystified this region for those who want to explore the southwest in a balanced way. Overall, the book is a rationalist's view, with lots of specific details, about a place in America that is routinely treated like a child's bedtime story.