So wait a minute -- a book full of poems that have film director Alfred Hitchcock as their primary point of inspiration? How does that work? It works better than you might expect.
As you'd expect, the poems in this book cover a pretty wide range of topics, even if they're all inspired by Hitch and his movies. There are quite a few that focus on Hitchcock's life, particularly his less-than-happy childhood and his interests and obsessions as a filmmaker. You also get plenty that are all about the movies, with "Psycho" and "The Birds" probably getting the most attention, though "The 39 Steps" is quite close behind.
Of course, I've got plenty of favorites in this book. They include:
* Steven Vernon's "Leytonstone Lad," which spotlights Hitchcock's childhood;
* Miles David Moore's "Shadow of a Doubt: Charles Oakley's Speech," which takes a walk through the mind of the killer from one of Hitchcock's best-loved films;
* G.O. Clark's "Alfred," which pays tribute to Hitchcock's film cameos;
* Lyn Lifshin's "Alma," dedicated to the director's long-suffering wife;
* Lifshin's "Think of a Woman Terrified by Birds, Caged," a study of the trials Tippi Hedren endured on the "Birds" set;
* Kathi Stafford's "Double Feature at the Pecos Drive-In," for anyone who remembers drive-in movies;
* Richard A. Lupoff's "At the Cosmic Saloon," which gives Robert Bloch, Janet Leigh, and Anthony Perkins a chance to air their grievances;
* Marge Simon's "The Birds' Lullaby," a wonderful bit of nonsense verse that gives voice to a bunch of murderous birds;
* Andrew J. Wilson's "crop-duster," almost more visual pun than poem, but the only work in the book to make me bust out with delighted, morbid laughter;
* and Sydney Duncan's "Sestina for Alfred Hitchcock" -- mainly because I like reading people writing unusual structured poems like sestinas.
And of course, plenty of others besides. I feel like I'm shortchanging some really good poems by not talking about `em here, but dangit, I can't just list every poem in the book.
This is a really fun book, a nice, easy read, though you ought to take a few days to read it, 'cause that's the best way to read poetry. I enjoyed some of these poems a lot more than the rest, but there really wasn't a single bad poem in the book. That's a pretty good average, folks.
You've got poems long and short, complex and simple, dark and... more dark. It's a good collection. I think Hitchcock would've liked it.
