Married to the Icepick Killer : A Poet in Hollywood

Rating:
Summary: engaging title, lively book
Review: Acerbic, funny, culturally aware and crackling with insight, as are Ms. Muske Dukes's poems and criticism

Rating:
Summary: Cambridge Turn On Your Brain
Review: Being familiar with and a fan of Muske-Dukes' poetry and fiction--have you read "Dear Digby"? If not, why not?--I can't understand the brief, snide "criticism" of one of her customer reviewers. The essays in "Icepick" celebrate, disect and illuminate a cultural mish-mash of writers and writing history in California--and offer insight into the "writing scene" in LA, so closely knit as it is with movies, ocean, earthquakes and sun and a literary history overlooked! It is not enough to pass off an accomplished author's work in one snide line. It is misleading and unfortunate. It is obvious from CMD's essays her passionate belief in the art of poetry, of writing, and the life of a writer in sprawling Los Angeles, passion that makes for an engaging read.

Rating:
Summary: Cambridge Turn On Your Brain
Review: Being familiar with and a fan of Muske-Dukes' poetry and fiction--have you read "Dear Digby"? If not, why not?--I can't understand the brief, snide "criticism" of one of her customer reviewers. The essays in "Icepick" celebrate, disect and illuminate a cultural mish-mash of writers and writing history in California--and offer insight into the "writing scene" in LA, so closely knit as it is with movies, ocean, earthquakes and sun and a literary history overlooked! It is not enough to pass off an accomplished author's work in one snide line. It is misleading and unfortunate. It is obvious from CMD's essays her passionate belief in the art of poetry, of writing, and the life of a writer in sprawling Los Angeles, passion that makes for an engaging read.

Rating:
Summary: I agree with Cambridge
Review: The best part of this book is the title. Once inside it is a major disappointment - shallow, self-centered and, frankly, boring. STAY AWAY FROM THIS BOOK.