Customer Reviews

First Course in Turbulence (Pitt Poetry Series)

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Dean Young is becoming one of the most dazzling poets writing. First Course in Turbulence is not only Young's best book, but one of the best poetry books of the year. He has the ability to convey simple human truths in delightful--humorous, wacky, bizarre--ways. He works by association, and he works quickly, providing his readers with a wild and utterly thrilling ride.

For a few books now Young has been steadily traveling the highway of surrealism. "In First Course in Turbulence" though, Young's wheels hop from the highway and into the stars. This book is wild and associative, beautifully illogical. What Young creates for me is way beyond surreal-- its Duchampish, Dadaistic as he teases and resists, reshapes the senses.

Reading Dean Young for the first time, I felt the way I felt upon discovering William Matthews or James Tate. Young is a major new poet, one who uses language and stream-of-consciousness in consistently interesting ways.

I read my first Dean Young poem on the Poetry Daily website, and fell in love with his wonderfully true yet strange voice. He weaves together timeless themes with current cultural references in a seamless way that will immediately have you thinking, "Yes, that's exactly the way it is." I covet his poems; they are on my refrigerator and my office bulletin board. They should be on billboards and in airports and perhaps even beamed up to the moon. Especially if you love the NY School of Poetry (Koch, Ashbery, Schuyler, and O'Hara), you will love Dean Young, too.

To not read Dean Young is a serious disease, something like never tasting ice cream. The poems in First Course in Turbulence have helped me in my life and my own writing. If you are a lover, read Dean Young. If you are a poet, read Dean Young. If you are suffering from some vague, psychosomatic illness, read Dean Young. These poems will help you heal. These are poems to read aloud, preferably after a huge meal. Alternately, I suggest reading these poems in bed, with the man or woman you love, or perhaps on the beach, with a few friends and a few beers.

that thar texin' dont know what he's talkin' 'bout.
barly made a lick of sense.

dean is a marvelous invention. if you read him you will discover pleasant sensations throughout your body.

I don't read much poetry, but this was recommended and I felt obligated because it was a good friend. When I read "First Course in Turbulence" I found it odd that Young could tap into so many emotions while apparently writing about children (Chapped Lips), students (Faculty Summary Report), or beetles (Only One of My Deaths). On the second reading it seemed that it was the other way around, he was manipulating emotions through these subjects; whatever the case may be the book is an astounding read. Difficult to comprehend and easy to enjoy the whirling connections made throughout his poetry.

Anyone who likes Dean Young should seek out an opportunity to see him read. He is hysterical.

Many readers go by what they "feel in the gut" about how good a book of poems may be. But how many have considered that what they "feel" is just a bad case of indigestion? That is the gut reaction one gets when reading Young's latest book of poems.