This is a cut&paste of a review on Amazon.com.
Everyone’s Happier than You James Zerndt
Some forty-eight poems: life and experience.
five stars.
I often begin a review by explaining that star counts reflect personal preferences and cultural background. While that is the case here, five stars was an easy decision. More on star counts at the end of this review.
As always, google anything you’re not 100% sure of. Zerndt is well-informed and wide-ranging. You’re in for some pleasant surprises in what seem to be innocent names and places.
To do a review, I read the entire book and make notes. Then I go back to poems I marked as special. This time there are so many of them that I will content myself with giving you samples of a few of them.
Zerndt treats himself with irony sometimes, as in Passive-Aggressive: “All you had to do was read the stupid thing, /then say thank you /for the tan you got /while basking in its brilliance.”
Drama and description open Felony Flats: “At one in the morning the wind is camouflaged /in old newspapers and car exhaust /as fifteen men circle two…”
For an amazing metaphor about writing, turn to Antiques Road Show. I generally distrust poems about poems, but this one is special.
There is fresh imagery in Floyd’s Coffee, about a converted gas station, where we find this: “Before the black-haired girl /leans her tattooed arm out the window /like a sultry gas nozzle to /fill the cars up with espresso….”
Spoiler alert: this is the entire short poem, The Party. This is a clear example of Zerndt’s power and imagination: “The earth is a piñata /stuffed with death certificates /while all the various gods circle round /waiting to swing bats/ at what they jokingly refer to /as candy.”
For more complex poems that reward second and third readings, turn to Reasons Why the World Should Have Stopped, and to Coroner. Zerndt’s gut-punch power will get to you here for sure. Then read Black Out – personal, moving, and scary.
Zerndt can create astonishing prose poems as well; I Want to Write Something About the Airport being another favourite here. This is experience, personal, and communicated.
There are many more fine poems in this volume, but I trust this gives you a feel for the fundamental excellence of this poet and his work. I promised earlier to harp back on the star counts, so here’s my usual boilerplate: My personal guidelines, when doing an ‘official’ KBR review, are as follows: five stars means, roughly equal to best in genre. Rarely given. Four stars means, extremely good. Three stars means, definitely recommendable. I am a tough reviewer. I try hard to be consistent.
Five stars is an easy decision. Everyone’s Happier Than You is an excellent collection of first-class poetry. Extremely recommended.
Kindle Book Review Team member.
(Note: this reviewer received a free copy of this book for an independent review. He is not associated with the author or Amazon.)