From October's
Library Journal:
"Whether she's writing about slave children ('necessity a little bracelet
of sound'), Jeanne Baret's voyage on a late 1700s expedition disguised
as a man ('I recall how these islands roast and eat white women/ if
there's a question of whose'), or the absolute ghastliness of war
('There are soldiers in mother's hair/ and soldiers peeling the
screen'), Svoboda takes a fiercely uncompromising stance. These are
often angry political poems, but they never descend into agit-prop;
other writers could learn something from her brilliant management of
language and emotion. As in previous sharp-minded work, whether poetry,
fiction, or nonfiction (e.g., Black Glasses Like Clark Kent), Svoboda
does not tell things straight but delivers cracked, impressionistic
fragments bound and delivered by an incredible drive. She's particularly
good when condemning U.S. military engagement ('Resistance fighters
resist,/ not insurgents/ who just want to live/ where they live'), which
she takes back to a shocking poem on black GIs in occupied Japan. In
fact, power mongers everywhere get her goat; after Henry VIII proclaims
'I'm what matters,' a baby picks his royal spittle off dog fur and
mutters, 'Ah-blue-gabe.' Verdict: Not for casual readers or right
wingers, this collection should be considered by anyone serious about
contemporary poetry."
-Barbara Hoffert,
Library JournalMore on the book
