From Publishers Weekly
This substantial collection surveys many different kinds and styles of laboring in poems by contemporary writers ranging from Cornelius Eady's "Why Do So Few Blacks Study Creative Writing?" to Deb Casey's pleasurably frenetic account of a mother who must drive her children to various appointments ("ZOOOOOOOM"). For some tastes, the book will seem too long, and its type overly small and tight, but Coles and Oresick, who have collaborated previously on Working Classics: Poems on Industrial Life, have clearly chosen to include as much as possible in order to illuminate a theme: not just work but "nonindustrial" work, that of a short-order cook, a woman giving birth, a baseball coach, even a scholar in pursuit of tenure. The poems themselves comprise a sort of corps, linked by mostly humble callings and their habits. Edward Hirsch describes the "vague feeling of panic" overtaking a subway commuter; Dana Gioia elegantly evokes the Andersonian epiphany of an overworked office employee. Excerpts from Louis Simpson's series, "The Associate," wryly recount life at a book publishing company. But of course, it's the language, and not the job, that recommends the poetry.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Editors Coles and Oresick (both at the Univ. of Pittsburgh) have compiled an anthology of poems about "the nature and culture of nonindustrial work." Their previous anthology, Work Classics: Poems on Industrial Life (LJ 7/90), focused on blue-collar neighborhoods. The "nonindustrial" work presented here is "white collar, pink collar, domestic, clerical, technical, managerial, or professional." Written in the 1980s and 1990s, poems by 96 poets (in alphabetical order by author's last name) explore what is gained and lost in maintaining "a steady position." It remains debatable how poetic commuting, doing housework, laboring in offices, or working as a clerk or a waitress can be in a global economy of "great companies," but these poems, filled with bitter humor and evocative yearning, show deep concern about the quality of life and the necessary disruptions in getting ahead. With its insightful introduction, this work is a useful anthology of current American poetry.
Frank Allen, West Virginia State Coll., Institute
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Frank Allen, West Virginia State Coll., Institute
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
