Cusp : Poems

Rating:
Summary: It's really quite good
Review: Grotz's first collection is a rather impressive one. Yes it has its faults. It does sag in the middle, but the first section is wonderful and the final section is quite good. But the books also has its positive points. Grotz covers a wide range of styles and subjects in her poems. And though none stick out as a truly phenomenal poem, there are many good poems in the book. I look forward to seeing more of her work as she matures.

Rating:
Summary: moderation and reason
Review: I read this book and found it to be like all the first books I've read of late: there were a few things to like, and many things to feel indifferent about. I took what I could get out of it--in inspiration and in caution--and will now move on and read the other new books out there. What continues to surprise me about the forums which surround the first books listed in Amazon is the amount of needlessly disdainful reviews which appear. The two long reviews which have appeared here for "Cusp" were clearly written by articulate, intelligent people--and yet after a while, given the heavy-handed dressing-down these reviews perform on the book, one begins to wonder about the reviewer and his or her state of mind. Why would anyone take a half-hour of his or her time writing a review that amounts to, at the least, a kind of road rage, and at worst a kind of hit-and-run? It's one thing to feel a great passion for poetry, to feel that every book should shine with ever-newer possibility and accomplishment, but it's another thing to focus on one book like "Cusp" and gleefully trash it. "Cusp" is part of the huge plurality of work that's being done in American poetry now; if you don't like it go on to something else.

Rating:
Summary: Skip this book--not worth your time
Review: I was eager to read this first book, as the Bakeless Prize is well known and highly coveted by poets. I was pretty disppointed in the book for several reasons. The poems are vapid. The language is really quite dull and borders on cliche on many occasions. There is nothing surprising about these poems in subject matter, tone, or language. The fact that Yusef K. picked this book and continues to give it accolades is rather amazing. He is right when he says that the book ties the theme of "cusp" throughout most of the poems; however, a thematic book is not necessarily a good book of poetry. I recommend passing on this book and going for great first books of poetry by the likes of Nick Flynn, Rick Barot, Cate Marvin, Amy Quan Barry. Skip this, you'll only get frustrated reading it.