Bright Felon

Starred review from July 20, 2009
“What do I really want to share with people? Not of my methods but of myself?” asks Ali in his third collection, a captivating song of himself that passionately excavates the interdependence between geography and identity. Ali, who is also a novelist, presents a candid history of his wandering life—“I have lived in six cities in five years”— which has perpetually taken place by a river (the Hudson, Nile or Seine), always carrying with him a desire to uncover the hidden aspects of a city and, in turn, his multitudinous self (“Under any city other cities exist. Under any body other bodies”). Ali recounts his journey backward in lists of images and thoughts, and the book's 15 sections are each devoted to a particular city, maintaining a strong narrative arc throughout, crossing genre lines to read as a kind of literary-journalistic, autobiographical text. Ali knows the power of facts; he writes of his time in New York City: “I was in exile, living out of a suitcase in a completely empty apartment in the deserted money district.” This is a fascinating work, brimming with bold meditations on religion, sexuality and what it means to live the life of an artist.

October 15, 2009
Though this latest book is biographical in style, Ali ("The Fortieth Day") borders across many literary genres. With a sense of urgency, the poet tells the tales of a wanderer who registers the flood of colors, images, scenes, memories, secret desires, and his personal views in order to give them a unique form and entity. Collage bends his worlds, and a stream-of-consciousness strategy entertains his inner thoughts. Ali reflects on his life and culture in fragments drizzled by aphoristic lines such as "Under my city other cities still exist. Under my body other bodies." Thematically, the book is structured much like loose thoughts and ideas written on a deck of index cards that the poet alludes to in some of his pieces. VERDICT Ali's book establishes writing as a process of conversations with the self and with the other in an intimate and engaging way. An enjoyable reading experience for both poetry lovers and initiates. [Previewed in "Editors' Fall Picks," "LJ" 9/1/09.]Sadiq Alkoriji, South Regional Lib., Broward Cty., FL

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