Customer Reviews

The Gravity Soundtrack

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In her first full-length collection, Keane imagines the interior lives of record clerks and air guitar geeks, as well as a probable encounter of Shane McGowan meeting her father at an after life dive bar. She approaches her subjects slyly and with love, but never with nostalgia or syrupy sweetness.

Long legs, a sharp tongue and a graceful pen, Keane composed a soundtrack all readers will want to hear.

Attentive readers have been keeping an eye on Erin Keane for some time now. While her earlier collections showed the promise of a remarkable talent, resting dormant like the proverbial butterfly in the proverbial chrysalis, the Gravity Soundtrack shows her talent blossoming in full, like the proverbial beautiful butterfly coming out of the chrysalis and realizing that is also a beautiful flower of mixed metaphor.

No, really, these are cool poems. If you like poetry; or if you had your love of poetry beaten out of you by reading musty old chestnuts in high school but are willing to accept the idea that they might still be relevant; or if you are indifferent to poetry but like bars, rock music or people; or if you like reading well-observed details about bars, about music, or about people who like them, you should read this book.

It's lowbrow poetry with a sense of humor. Feels like digging around in a junk store and finding that Rohl Dahl book you loved as a kid, half a conversation on the back of a postcard no one thought you'd ever see, and a serviceable copy of one of those albums that makes the critic's lists but you haven't ever heard. It's a good find.

Read the stunning images from a poem entitled "The Tao of Big Daddy" -- "wall panels peel like tears" and "carved space/between yes and no" -- and you can see for yourself why this book amazes, delights and impresses.

Erin Keane's first book is a triumph, a guidepost. Here is a voice that values the young and honors the time-tested. Keane's poems are honest and insightful, easy like breathing, seamless as pulling a trigger. It's like smoking a cigarette with the priest after taking confession. A definite must-read for alienated young readers and seasoned veterans.

Keane takes her inspiration for The Gravity Soundtrack from popular music, children's literature, her southern surroundings, and unexpected visions of the divine. She is at times witty, snarky, sensual, touching, and all of the above. This beautiful first collection should be passed from one friend to another.