Customer Reviews

A Gringo Like Me: Poems

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When you first begin to read Jennifer L. Knox's stunning accomplishment, A Gringo Like Me, you get sucked in to the world of the poems immediately as if pulled under water. Each poem has its own character and life to it--rough edges, foul mouths, sexual urges, heartbreaking statistics, insanity, and a language so full of textured sounds and the bold ringing of alarms--it is easy to see how this poet has established herself as a lightening rod in the poetry community. While some poems make you laugh uncontrollably with their hysterical honesty and colloquial stories, underneath all of these poems is a true respect and awe for what a person must do in order to survive. In this book we are introduced to all walks of life and allowed to see behind the curtain, underneath the skirt, inside the mind, all guided by the expert hand (and voice) of a genius poet. As a storyteller, Knox is uniquely brutal, as a comic she is strangely tragic, and as a poet she is a master of a language so bold and welcoming that when she pulls you under her water, you find that you are not only able to swim, you are able to breathe.

MFA students should be handed this book when they get to school -- yes, it is possible to write engaging, accessible verse that is funny, outrageous, and lyrical. Ms. Knox, along with writers like Jeffrey McDaniel and Matthew Zapruder, are showing a new way to engage with popular culture while at the same time writing poetry that can please any poetry fan.

This book is a joy to read. Knox has a talent for recognizing the absurdities of life and celebrating them. Her readings are spectacular phenomena. She is exuberant, animated, and absolutely in command of every word, every perfect inflection.