Customer Reviews

Overtime: Poems

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When I'm not picking this book up again (& again) as a source of inspiration, it rests on my shelf between Phillip Levine's _What_Work_Is_ and B.H. Fairchild's _The_Art_Of_The_Lathe_. It holds its own in that company as a solid, timeless book that both furthers and transcends the genre of poems about work.

This book opened my eyes to the secret life of men. Camille Paglia, Philip Levine, Richard Hugo and Larry Levis would love this book. If you've ever worked, raised a child, been married or divorced, had a desperate love affair, drank too much, tried too hard, missed your father or read Keats out loud to the salt marches, this is the book for you. A great accomplishment by a wonderful new poet.

Joseph Millar's Overtime is one of those rare books that combines narrative brevity with lush descriptions, the result being a book that is both accessible and joyfully, smartly lyrical. This can be seen in the opening line of Love Pirates: "I follow with my mouth the small wing of muscle / under your shoulder, lean over your back, breathing / into your hair and thinking of nothing" (49). Another prime example is Ed's Auto Repair, one of my favorites from this book, in which the narrator watches a mechanic's "...torch flame splash / its lizard shapes onto the dark steel" (4). Like all of Millar's poems, Ed's Auto Repair resonates with visceral, luxurious descriptions: a shop "smelling of gas and iron," "air hoses [hissing] in the corners," "the shadows under the muffler, / the new metal ticking."

I first came across Millar's work in various literary journals and was immediately struck by Millar's ability to accomplish some kind of lyrical feat in every line without sounding heavy-handed. I ordered this book and have been recommending it ever since. In short, Overtime is just a lovely example of wordsmithing at its best. Pick it up; your bookshelf will thank you!