D-Bags, Girls and Tough Guys: the Poetry of Justin Hyde

The two poetry chapbooks of Justin Hyde arrived at my door by way of friend and novelist Caleb J. Ross. Ever since reading Hyde's books I have been wrestling with the daunting task of faithfully representing them in a book review. Now allow me to immediately back-pedal what I just said. I detest reviews of every stripe that begin with a preface about how hard it was to find comparisons and make judgments about a book; album; movie; what-have-you; and then immediately do so. However, I think I can prove by merit of the thirteen day wait since announcing plans to cover these books and actually doing so that it has been a bit of a challenge. 

What I can say is that I finally found good comparisons for his work not in other poets per se but in musicians. A caveat to that: Justin Hyde's poetry ain't no love songs.

Gravity's Painbow

the pain is for the way it makes your head feel.

Thomas Pynchon wrote an amazing novel called Gravity's Rainbow. A literary expedition through post WWII German that does more questioning than answering. Topics covered include pop culture of the 20's through the 60's, paranoia, mental illness, sexuality, technology, violence, quantum physics and conspiracy.

I have no idea where to begin, but I hope to be able to give a pretty good over view of this book, at least in regard to what it does for literature...no telling when I will be able to tackle the miles of symbolism.

As Good a Day as Any

For a fresh post on some good reading.

On the menu today:

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

First thoughts:

Lot 49 is in serious need of some commas but is a whirlwind story none the less.
Ivan is a great alternative to the old worn out distopian novel.