From Booklist
Opening with an epigraph and ending with a poem filled with longing, Dillard's fifth collection seems like an extended series of thoughts on everyday spirituality. Invoking such brooding demigods of darkness as Henri Rousseau, Poe, and Hitchcock, Dillard reveals his shadowy definition of spirit. It does not involve trendy fluff about heading through the tunnel of light to meet the Big Guy but, rather, wonderfully moody contemplations about the nonmaterial and emotional energies surrounding our actions. In "Domestic Cosmology," Dillard even compares the universe to the household and its chores: "Bent light, curved space dented like dough / Waiting for the oven or bulging / As the yeast rises." Dillard is also adept at combining personal loss, such as a mother's death, with planetary-cultural loss, such as the fall of the Soviet empire. Elizabeth Gunderson
