From Publishers Weekly
"I am still/ traveling toward home." The subject matter of Slaughter's autobiographical first collection-an abusive, unhappy childhood lorded over by a drunken martinet of a father-brings forth self-pity in the poet that can work against our natural inclination to sympathize with anyone who has suffered. Her narrative bent in free verse draws a reader in with story, but an overworked stock of imagery frequently deters or obstructs. Slaughter shows her influences candidly-they include Williams, Plath and Sexton-and crafts arresting lines ("The moon spreads my shadow on animal-wet straw"). Yet too often the writing is either bland or inflated, leaning on familiar tropes, figures and usages ("Sweat breaks out, jaw clenched") or veering toward melodrama ("All the while your moaning eyes stare at me"). Slaughter chooses to repeat some unfortunate trite phrases, as if to gain a momentum that never materializes: in one poem, a father "inhales several thick martinis" while in another he "breathes in a gin martini." In "Dead Women Poets" the weaknesses are emblematic: language evokes cliches of injury, suicide and survival, undermining Slaughter's main theme, female heroism.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Here are poems of great dignity, reserve, and control on matters that rarely call forth such responses: a violent, abusive upbringing as a "military brat," persistent familial alcoholism, and a failed marriage all figure in them, presenting occasions, never subjects, for Slaughter, whose subject is instead and always the perceiving and surviving self. Her quest in her work is to understand both the ways in which the outer life forms the inner and, conversely, how the inner life can be sustained despite emotional travail. There is much that is noble and heroic in these poems, for Slaughter's searing plainspokenness removes the taint of victimization: after her father rides away on the horse that has thrown her, she says, "I learned the pleasure of the moment / and how to get up afterwards, even with a sprained knee, / how to stand up and walk." A stunning debut volume. Pat Monaghan
