Jason Irwin

These poems took me to the times and places they centered on--dying factory towns, rust belt cities, and kitchen tables and taverns and porches nursing broken dreams--which is in itself something impressive. In fact, the details here are so grounded in setting and culture, in particular time and place, it's almost impossible not to be transported by them. And there are moments scattered through these poems which struck me in the moment, and demanding re-read after re-read.

I'd like to read more by Jason Irwin, though at the moment I'm not sure how I feel about the collection. There's a grounded power to it, but (a lack of?) editing also distracted me, perhaps adding to the impression that some of the more poetic moments felt more forced, as if the scenes offered here were meant to be vignettes just so much as poems, with line breaks somewhat forced on them to take them away from being prose. As a result, even as I could appreciate how Irwin brought the people and scenes here to life, I wanted more from the poems themselves, which made for something of a disconnected reading experience.

Still, there's a lot here to admire, and I'd certainly want to read more by Irwin.… (mere)