Customer Reviews

Nobody's Hell

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I find the publication of the negative feedback blurb by Kirkus Reviews on the front of this page offensive, tactless, and inappropriate. Although criticism is relevant, it can be shaped in many other, more appropriate, ways - constructively, maturely - than it had appeared in the review, without detracting from the critic's originally intended message. Ironically, the critic who assails the author, whom he arrogantly refers to as "Easy", and as someone who failed to "grow up" with his poems, appears to suffer from this same apparent lack of maturity. The publication of such a biased review highly charged with tactlessness is unfair for the author and for potential readers; it's unfair because it has the effect of innappropriately relating the imprudent rants of one critic over assumed personality traits of the author, to the actual quality of the book. Whether the Kirkus criticism accurately portrays the quality of the reading or not becomes questionable because of the lack of an expected degree of objectivity, and the excessively "annoying voice" that the critic uses him or herself.

NOBODY'S HELL by Douglas Goetsch is filled with the kind ofpoetry I feel comfortable recommending to anyone. High school kids whowould never consider reading a poem are invited in by the every day language, the sense of humor and the way Goetsch accurately portrays the childhood of a brainy, never too cool kid living through his family's disintegration. Fellow poets will be drawn in by the subtle rhythms, the strong, logical narratives that move the reader through each poem naturally, without wasted motion or words, and Goetsch's uncanny eye that always seems to pick precise, perfect details that get to the heart of matters we all recognize but rarely take the time to examine.

I go for the poems that are much more than a poet who likes to hear the sound of his own voice. In the opening piece, "Counting," a boy is walking along side a building, running his finger "in the grout/ till it grew hot and numb" counting bricks, floors, buildings, city blocks. We learn he comes from a family of counters: his brother counts cavities, his grandfather compounds daily interest and his father uses "numbers to predict/ when men are going to die." The poem gracefully turns at the start of its close with the unexpected yet inevitable line, "That's all any child wants: to count," and you sense that this boy hasn't felt like he's counted too often and you suspect that a number of the poems in this collection will watch this boy learning what counts and how he can matter in the world.

In "Dark Morning" there's a power shortage and the boy's mother hands him a flashlight, tells him to help his father shave. The language is taut and simple like directions that even I can follow. The tension simmers as the boy shines this small spotlight on his father's face and comes to a boil with the penultimate line, "A face I can't ever remember touching." "Walking Wounded" made me remember how much trouble, how laugh out loud funny and how incredibly significant a b**er could be in high school. In the prose poem "Lawyer," despite the divorce lawyer's hesitancy, the narrator's mother brings him into the office and the boy hears things that can only be called cruel. The effect is like a good, clean hit in football that comes out of nowhere and leaves you on the ground stunned. When you go back to read it over again it is still hard to believe that the tiniest of movements, the briefest bits of conversation and a few choice details could add up to so much force.

An adolescent is self immersed and tends to paint the world in broad black and white, instantly shifting, stripes. Goetsch gets the details, the feel of childhood and high school so dead on right that I'm fairly certain that things like balance and overview would spoil it. (And the Kirkus reviewer certainly didn't go to my school. No one bragged about high grades. Ever. Even now, I would rather have been, if not "the girl who f***ed " in "Northport," one of the guys who was lucky enough to hang out with her, or the younger dumber kid who could "kick the s**t" out of the brainy geeky narrator in "Rice." Yeah, even if you promised I would grow up and publish a book filled with so many compelling poems.)

The second section follows the narrator through college, his move to NYC and his struggles with loneliness as he tries to create a place for himself. In "Such A Good Dancer," the poem that digs the deepest and moves me the most, the narrator loses his virginity, "Disgusted with myself-two years/ in college and still a virgin-I would/ stick my d**k in a girl and end that." Randi Muelbach is the girl and there's not a thing about her the narrator likes. He's on a mission and it is enough that she thinks he is a good dancer and would go with him to his room. I know, that doesn't seem too different than what any guy would do; but while the girl is undressing the narrator says, "After tonight I don't want us/ to ever talk again. OK?/ That's what I said. / She looked down at me and said/ Sure, like it was nothing." And I had to read those lines again, right away, to believe them. And sure, that is often the exchange; but this time, the awkward and honest but insensitive narrator puts it out there in plain words and the girl has to acknowledge this statement, voice some kind of response, and the reader has to figure out how he or she feels about the situation, the two people involved as we all:

"hear the whole dorm writhing/ on a Saturday night. Even Kim Putnam/ the born-again who wore only long skirts/ and was losing her hair, was getting banged/ and moaning like a wild woman. Sometimes it sounded like a crowd/ ooh-ing and ahh-ing at a car accident;/ sometimes I heard the night as one f**k/ xeroxed and traveling room to room."

That's what the best of Goetsch's poems do: they take familiar scenes and show them through a fresh lens, they take the reader a little further, force you to stop and think and feel, explore things that would make you uncomfortable, things you ordinarily would happily pass by. And by the time I made my way through NOBODY'S HELL, I had lost count of the number of strong, remarkable poems I would be reading over and over.

Douglas Goetsch isn't hiding anything. It all comes out when you enter Nobody's Hell - his mother's moustache, his flailing love life - he doesn't leave anything out. This book offers an extremely intimate look into the life of a wonderfully complicated and frighteningly honest individual.

Douglas Goetsch gave a reading from this book at my college, and it changed my entire view of poetry. Goetsch is one of the most talented authors we have around today. The poems here are very personal, but tailored to a universal audience--offering the world a wise glimpse into that politics of love and family without ever becoming pretentious. Goetsch exercises great restraint in not elevating himself, and the humility is beneficial to setting the somber, degraded mood of most of the poems in this book.

The wit displayed is also incredible. Not one of these poems can't be considered sad, but Goetsch keeps a remarkable balance between philosophy and entertainment. I can not wait for his next collection.

This collection of narrative poems, prose poems, and others is worth reading, even if you hate poetry. The voice - a strange combination of sarcastic, warm, and daring - adds new life to seemingly dull incidents in suburban and urban life. The first section is slow-moving, but that does not take much away from this fine collection.

Doug Goetsch's poems are superb--I know this because after reading many, I wished I had written them myself.

Douglas Goetsch's first book, Nobody's Hell is a wonderful combination of all the important parts of poetry. He has amazing emotional perception and describes them precisely. Two of my favorites are "Three Blind Dates" and "Such A Good Dancer" Anyone who decides to pass this book up is making a terrible mistake.

Doug Goetsch is poet who isn't afraid to take risks--with language, subject matter, and form. The poems are about yearnings, fantasies, human cruelty and kindness, loss, self-doubt, anger, and redemption. The darkness in the poems is often tempered with a gentle empathy and compassion. Whether its his parents' divorce or his failed attempts at human connection, his sexual embarrassments, or his often funny, and deeply human portraits of other people, Goetsch writes with force, clarity, and straight ahead honesty. This is a fine, readable collection for anyone who enjoys contemporary poetry.