The Captain Lands in Paradise: Poems

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Summary: And check out that author photo -- she's a fox, too!
Review: I mostly read novels but was very glad to discover Sarah Manguso's poetry. Her writing is an unexpected combination of dream and epigram -- you wouldn't believe that it'd work, but it does, beautifully. Instead of treating the self as a sump to maunder through, Magnuso tweezes it off the bone bit by bit and eyes it with a loupe, with the reader looking over her shoulder. She obviously loves langauge but is no show-off; nor does she ever become cryptic or precious. Her poetry is clear, serious, and lancingly funny. And sad. "That's a lot of dead bear" -- that line gets me every time.

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Summary: She knows what she's talking about
Review: Manguso's voice is conversational and declaratory, seeking--and finding--truth in luminous, mysterious metaphors. "Sometimes I think I understand the way things work/ and then I find out that on Neptune it rains diamonds," Manguso writes in "Beautiful Things." She has learned much about the way things work, and she has much to teach us. She is unafraid to make the important discoveries. Reading her poems is traveling on an important, sometimes frightening, journey with a trusted guide.

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Summary: on Neptune it rains diamonds
Review: The Captain Lands in Paradise opened up a whole new kind of poetry to me. The poems are spare, witty and pure precision. They contain inalienable truths like "Either a thing will happen or it won't" which has become a mantra for me whenever I'm freaking out. There is something very sober and fearless there. There is no... and no hiding in vagueness, each poem is urgently clear even when it takes you to Neptune. The precision makes the reader feel like he matters. Like giant things are being communicated with great economy, with no time to waste.