From Kirkus Reviews
This years Juniper Prize winner, a technical writer and book designer, draws on her interest in science in many of these plainly written, first-person narratives. A walker in nature, she brings a naturalists eye to bear on insects, plants, and geology, and occasionally works in oblique references to her many-roomed sexuality, as well as to her family. Donovans simple observations proceed by contrast and work into simile: in The Many Uses of Camouflage, zebras on TV remind her of the pin-striped men at a bar who manage to blend into the background; in Travel Silk, a spiders web seems like the web over Earth used for navigation: both things are similar to her and her lover, who need to chart a course around the screen between them; and in Nothing by Mouth, a friend rendered toothless by a car accident recalls the bulldozer next door thats ripped some of the roots of her trees. Donovan also finds her poems in the mouths of others she hears on her travels: a father tries to explain to his daughter why some fish die at a fishway in Massachusetts; a plumber shows his unmarried daughters sonogram; and a girl in Alabama cries to Daddy on her cell phone about a fender-bender. But Donovans best verse addresses the issues in science head-on, whether shes dissecting Drosophila with a friend in Arizona (Science is this pure) or marveling on the Earths solidity from an observatory. Ignis Mutat Res reminds us of our tiny role in the big story, and The Law of Similarsa wonderfully skeptical look at homeopaths and mysticsasserts the one true alchemy: language. Too bad Donovan shows so little skill in her own efforts at making gold. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
Against Maintenance
Brief History Of Peacetime
Chemo
Crossing New York State
Deal
Digestion
Dissecting Drosophila With Marcie: Tucson, Arizona
Dissipative Structures
Double Portion Church
Ecumene
The Enthymeme In Perspective
A Few Falls In Tuscaloosa : 2. Downtown Postal Station, Univ. And 21st
A Few Falls In Tuscaloosa: 1. First Alabama, Corner Of Hackberry
A Few Falls In Tuscaloosa: 3. Kroger's Supermarket, Northwood Plaza
The Fishway At Holyoke
Glory Over Iowa, August 1988
Ignis Mutat Res
In The Observatory
In Transit With Walker
Invertebrate Oddities
The Law Of Similars
The Many Uses Of Camouflage
More Mere Tinkering
Nothing By Mouth
The Plumber's Begun To Notice
Principia
The Return Of Fugitive Red
The Scout Looks For Bee Purple
The Secchi Depth
To Elpenor In Heaven
Travel Silk
Walking The Ouachita
Where Things Come From, Where They Go
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
Brief History Of Peacetime
Chemo
Crossing New York State
Deal
Digestion
Dissecting Drosophila With Marcie: Tucson, Arizona
Dissipative Structures
Double Portion Church
Ecumene
The Enthymeme In Perspective
A Few Falls In Tuscaloosa : 2. Downtown Postal Station, Univ. And 21st
A Few Falls In Tuscaloosa: 1. First Alabama, Corner Of Hackberry
A Few Falls In Tuscaloosa: 3. Kroger's Supermarket, Northwood Plaza
The Fishway At Holyoke
Glory Over Iowa, August 1988
Ignis Mutat Res
In The Observatory
In Transit With Walker
Invertebrate Oddities
The Law Of Similars
The Many Uses Of Camouflage
More Mere Tinkering
Nothing By Mouth
The Plumber's Begun To Notice
Principia
The Return Of Fugitive Red
The Scout Looks For Bee Purple
The Secchi Depth
To Elpenor In Heaven
Travel Silk
Walking The Ouachita
Where Things Come From, Where They Go
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
