Review
This is an impressive first book full of meaty poems and wry surprises. Even the so-called literary poems- Circe, To Anna Karenina, Note -are substantive and fresh. Thomas s reach is broad and daring, from the shtetls of her forebears to the abuses of today s petrochemical industry. Mourning the murdered Lithuanian Jews of the Holocaust and celebrating the cholesterol-rich menu of the River Run café intercut with local scandals are made to seem appropriate apposites in this lively collection. --Maxine Kumin
This delightful and long overdue collection of poems shows Susan Thomas at her delicious best: So many ways/ to eat chicken:/ fricasseed and boiled/ sautéed with herbs and shallots/ roasted, stuffed with mushrooms . . . Hard not to make a culinary comparison about the range and variety of these poems poems about history, family history, landscape, myth, fairy tale; the whole world is here to be savored and enjoyed. A state of blessed gluttony that s how I felt after reading this debut collection. Now I m greedy for more. --Jane Shore
Perhaps it is, as she says, necessity fueled by / the impossible, that makes State of Blessed Gluttony such a superb experience of a ravenous imagination. Here, after all, we find art, fairy tales, history, a murdered girl, King Kong, Penelope, mad plumbers, ghosts, even objects themselves in a dialogue that tells us they exist now, in the fabulous world created by Susan Thomas s terrific vision. Which is to say that this is a book that redefines our own world, and so ourselves, enrichng us with its particulars, broadening us its vision, so that, like her, we find a way to refuse to be a blur / on desire s muffled horizion. --Richard Jackson
This delightful and long overdue collection of poems shows Susan Thomas at her delicious best: So many ways/ to eat chicken:/ fricasseed and boiled/ sautéed with herbs and shallots/ roasted, stuffed with mushrooms . . . Hard not to make a culinary comparison about the range and variety of these poems poems about history, family history, landscape, myth, fairy tale; the whole world is here to be savored and enjoyed. A state of blessed gluttony that s how I felt after reading this debut collection. Now I m greedy for more. --Jane Shore
Perhaps it is, as she says, necessity fueled by / the impossible, that makes State of Blessed Gluttony such a superb experience of a ravenous imagination. Here, after all, we find art, fairy tales, history, a murdered girl, King Kong, Penelope, mad plumbers, ghosts, even objects themselves in a dialogue that tells us they exist now, in the fabulous world created by Susan Thomas s terrific vision. Which is to say that this is a book that redefines our own world, and so ourselves, enrichng us with its particulars, broadening us its vision, so that, like her, we find a way to refuse to be a blur / on desire s muffled horizion. --Richard Jackson
About the Author
Susan Thomas has published stories, poems and translations in many literary journals and anthologies. State of Blessed Gluttony was the winner of the 2002 Benjamin Saltman Prize for Poetry. Her chapbook, The Hand Waves Goodbye, was published by Main Street Rag in 2002. She is last yearÂ’s winner of the Iowa Poetry Award from the Iowa Review and the Ann Stanford Prize from University of Southern California. She lives in Marshfield, VT and NYC.
