There's No Place Like the Internet in Springtime

Wait, am I thinking of the Internet? Oh, maybe not, but what Im thinking of is desperate and very, very like it. Layering comedy over insight over rue and pathos over comedy, mixing its flexible couplets with beautifully spiky free verse, Erik Kennedys first collection should climb up all the right charts: his phrases can go anywhere, then come back, and he has figured out how to sound both trustworthy and nonplussed, both giddy and humble, in the same breath. Sometimes he impersonates spiny lobsters; sometimes hes a socialist chambered nautilus. Sometimes hes our best guide to the globe-trotting ridiculous. And sometimes (start with `Mailing in a Form Because Theres No Online Form) hes the `un-flick-off-able, so-wrong-hes-just-right guide to the way we live now. Steph Burt Erik Kennedy, steeped in his craft, knows his poetic ropes and that is why his book is a constant delight. James Norcliffe