Customer Reviews

Turneresque

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Elizabeth Willis, Turneresque (Burning Deck Press, 2003)

Elizabeth Willis' third (that I've found to date) full-length work is just as gorgeous and surprising as her previous book, The Human Abstract. Willis is one of the few poets who can actually pull off the prose poem and make it sound like more than a short-short story:

"Doctors sculpt a monster to disprove everything. Scaling mountains, she forgives herself the climbs of youth. Nothing can stop her dark mouth. She governs boys carelessly. You can't forge her dazzle. She stars all the time. Acts accrue against her inner caning. She lifts and shoots in furs, criming her way to newness, men...." (from "A Woman's Face")

An amazing book from an amazing writer. Elizabeth Willis deserves to be far, far better-known than she is now; pick up Turneresque (and The Human Abstract, while you're at it) and help spread the word. **** ½

With her antenna-like attention to detail, haunting poignancy, and impressive range, Willis has once again successfully bridged the world of materiality and that of metaphysics in this third theme-based collection from Burning Deck. Willis is one of the only poets left who is able to make surrealism "real", and to be able to transform her wisdom into a lively experience for the reader. Her words are so carefully chosen and her atmospheres so wholly and heartfully rendered, that the book's only disappointment is its short length. A brilliant piece of gold among dull rocks, and well worth the buy.