Matrix 82 Reviews
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[ Reviewed in Matrix 82 ]
Matrix 82: Anxiety! is now available, with reviews of:
feria: a poempark by Oana Avasilichioaei
The Surface of Meaning: Books and Book Design in Canada by Robert Bringhurst
Noise from the Laundry by Weyman Chan
The Tablecloth Trick by Rick Crilly
The Steve Machine by Mike Hoolboom
Marrying Hungary by Linda Leith
Noble Gas, Penny Black by David O’Meara
The Sentinel by A.F. Moritz
The Invisibility Exhibit by Sachiko Murikami
Aide-Mémoire by Ruth Roach Pierson
is/was by Jenny Sampirisi
More to Keep Us Warm by Jacob Scheier
is/was by Jenny Sampirisi
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[ Reviewed in Matrix 82 ]
Insomniac Press, 2008
Read by Carrie Schmidt
I learned a harsh literary lesson when I was fifteen years old: never read the introduction until the actual story has been read. That was how Lord of the Flies was ruined for me — the ending was revealed in those first few pages of the introduction. is/was does not have an introduction, but the plot description on the back of the book reveals details better left discovered within the story, especially as the entire style of the book is the slow, deadly reveal.
And now, a new lesson to mutter to myself: do not read the backs of books, judge books solely by their cover. Fortunately, reading the descriptive summary on the back of is/was did not ruin the story entirely, but it did dampen the brutal, disturbing magic of this strange book and it’s exploration of loss. is/was is a dark and disturbing first novel, thick with sexual malevolence and unease.
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omnibus review
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[ Reviewed in Matrix 82 ]
Ruth Roach Pierson
Aide-Mémoire (BuschekBooks, 2007)
Jacob Scheier
More to Keep Us Warm (ECW Press, 2007)
Sachiko Murakami
The Invisibility Exhibit (TalonBooks, 2008)
A.F. Moritz
The Sentinel (Anansi, 2008)
Weyman Chan
Noise From The Laundry (TalonBooks, 2008)
Read by Holly Luhning
There’s been no shortage of discussion about the GG nominees and winners recently. While the controversy surrounding the poetry category this year has provoked a plethora of blog rants, this review aims to focus on the work of the five nominees. (more…)
Matrix 81 Reviews
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[ Reviewed in Matrix 81 ]
8×8x7 by Colin Smith
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[ Reviewed in Matrix 81 ]
KRUPSKAYA, 2008
Read by Nick McArthur
In the acknowledgements page of his newest collection, Colin Smith describes his poem “Hoot,” as “a sculpting of Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl.’” Perhaps more specifically, the poem appears as a minimalist re-imagination of the Beat original; a distillation of Ginsberg’s epic into two or three word noun clauses, scattered across four pages, and seemingly unlinked by any form or grammar. The end result is a thematically and ideationally faithful homage that is nonetheless unique in both shape and tone: whereas “Howl” appears breathless, continuous, and bombastic, “Hoot” is quiet, fragmented and concise; and while “Howl” most resembles a single tireless rant, “Hoot” takes the shape of intermittent mutters. (more…)
Woodshedding by S.E. Venart
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[ Reviewed in Matrix 81 ]
Brick Books, 2007
Read by Jakub Stachurski
The term ‘woodshedding’ is archaic slang for sound parental thrashings, later adopted by musicians to denote arduous and solitary rehearsal or spontaneous singing. All three definitions are applicable to the poems in S.E. Venart’s first collection, as she contemplates parental folly and isolation, often in a confessional mode. (more…)
Families are Formed Through Copulation by Jacob Wren
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[ Reviewed in Matrix 81 ]
Pedlar Press, 2007
read by Melissa Bull
“I think… this might sound crazy… I think, in the van, they have a machine: radio waves or microwaves. They have a machine that’s making me feel ill.” (more…)
The Jealousy Bone by Julie Paul
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[ Reviewed in Matrix 81 ]
Véhicule Press, 2008
read by Carrie Schmidt
Julie Paul’s first collection of 14 short stories, though well-written, has its share of problems. There is repetition throughout the collection, and consistently unlikable characters. It is clear that Paul is a talented writer; dialogue flows naturally and she sets a scene well, (more…)
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy by Tao Lin
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[ Reviewed in Matrix 81 ]
Melville House, 2008
Read by Aaron Giovannone
Over the last few years, Tao Lin’s blog (readerofdepressingbooks.blogspot.com) has cultivated a large following of fans, or as he has called them in one of his self-promotional web stunts, “Tao Lin Interns”. Lin’s transparent, funny, confessional style is well-suited to the online environment’s demand for immediate gratification, and judging by the blog postings of some of his avid ‘Interns’, this style is highly contagious. (more…)
O Cadoiro by Erin Moure
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[ Reviewed in Matrix 81 ]
House of Anansi Press, 2007
Read by Erin Gray
“All in all, we must confess that the cantigas present difficulties: problems with interpretation, ambiguities, confusing passages and points of obscurity.”
- Marques Braga, 1945
Erin Moure did not write O Cadoiro. Rather, she read it into being, gathered its contents from a wandering and a fall.
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Living Things by Matt Rader
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[ Reviewed in Matrix 81 ]
Nightwood Editions, 2008
read by Darren Bifford
Living Things is Matt Rader’s second book of poetry. The good poems in this book are very good—with the lesser poems standing as just good. They are technically accomplished and gritty, displaying something of a debt to Babstock and early Lowell. More than this, Rader’s book is the result of a great deal of intense reading in mid-20th century English and American poetry. I suppose this kind of background should be assumed with any contemporary poetry; with Rader, however, the indebtedness of influence and effort to write poems that can compete with the best is especially evident and painfully admirable. (more…)
The Cult of Quick Repair by Dede Crane
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[ Reviewed in Matrix 81 ]
Coteau Books, 2008
Read by Drew Halfnight
There is something womblike about the stories in Dede Crane’s new collection The Cult of Quick Repair. The warm prose washes over the reader like a benign amniotic fluid, and one has the sense, especially in the opening story “Seers,” which evokes the deep heat and soothing gyrations of an ultrasound, that one could perhaps float effortlessly through life with no trouble at all. But for Crane, the ultrasound reveals babies and tumours alike. Visceral ruptures, including abortions, adultery and death, await the characters in this collection. The dowdy nurse who so lovingly applies the cool, bluish goo, for example, becomes the victim of spontaneous perversions. (more…)
Matrix 80 Reviews
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[ Reviewed in Matrix 80 ]
the rush to here, by George Murray
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[ Reviewed in Matrix 80 ]
Nightwood Editions, 2007
Read by Jakub Stachurski
“From a crack in the dark wall hang loose wires: / give a tug and watch society start / to unravel,” writes George Murray in “A Moment’s Autograph,” one of the opening poems of his fourth collection. It is a fitting introduction, as the four sequences of poems offer a kind of unraveling, an examination of the unseen, unaccounted moments of our lives: (more…)
The Withdrawal Method By Pasha Malla
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[ Reviewed in Matrix 80 ]
House of Anansi, 2008
Read by Susan Briscoe
Many of the stories in The Withdrawal Method feature some version of a young male failing to achieve heroic status. Generally, the young man seems a nice-enough guy — a book store clerk, a daycare or social worker, the kind of guy who doesn’t like to fight; the disappointed party is a child or a woman with fairly reasonable expectations; and the required noble deed is perhaps no more demanding than not falling asleep on the job, not accelerating towards a child on the road, or not watching what you’re pretty sure is child porn. (more…)
