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Rating:  - An Ocean Between
Duhamel's book can get a little prosaic, and yet poems like Stranger are so true in their voice and emotion maybe everyone should just take a valium and enjoy this fabulous foray into pop culture and marriage and old age and abusive relationships and feminine protection (here and in Spain!). What unabashed fun--she gets to drop Molly Peacock's name and talk about Nick at Nite. Pick it up at the book store and read the touching "Stranger" and then read the wild "Another Poem Called 'Sphincter'" Who else is going to give you that kind of variety?
Rating: - Best Poet of the Decade!
My favorite poems in the book are "Insomnio", "Art", "Star Spangled Banner", and all the rest. This poet is showing us what the coming century will bring to American poetry--an intelligent, self-assured voice that speaks to the heart and soul, to the Apollonian and Dionysian sides of human experience. Ms. Duhamel is ahead of her time.
Rating:  - Better than most
I like Denise Duhamel's poems; I really do. I like the fact that she writes about real things in real time, and I like her energy. But she's kinda sloppy, and could use some self-editing. Not too much -- all that aggressive blab is what's fun about her -- but I think she's in danger of becoming a caricature of herself. Time to learn some new tricks?
Rating: - MY HEROINE
Denise Duhamel has had a cult following here in NY for a few years now. I remember when she used to sell her chapbooks at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe for 50 cents. That was somewhere around the late-eighties. It's great to see that she has come so far and has such a class act book at this! SIU Press has chosen wisely. Duhamel's new poems are still full of that edginess and strangeness that once made her a staple of the Lower East Side writing community. I highly recommend this book. It's great that people far and wide are able to get their hands on her work. She's "made it" without selling out.
Rating: - SHARON OLDS MEETS ROSIE O'DONNELL
When I read this book I couldn't help respond to the mix of pop culture fluff and true grief and searching and what I would call "soul." Duhamel travels easily from the world of sitcoms (like in the poem "Nick at Night") to middle of the night terror (in the poem "Insomnio.") THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER is a book in which anything seem possible--Sharon Olds doing stand-up? Or maybe Rosie O'Donnell doing Shakespeare? A terrific book.
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