The Ticking is the Bomb

December 7, 2009
Award-winning poet/author Flynn (Another Bullshit Night in Suck City
) uses his daughter's imminent birth as a springboard to examine personal and political shakiness. Flynn jumps back and forth in covering his rocky childhood (his parents: a distraught, hard-living single mother; an ex-con, mentally wrecked father who was largely absent from Flynn's childhood), his struggles with women and sobriety, and adjusting to his daughter's arrival. Throughout this swirl of heartache and introspection, Flynn becomes obsessed with torture and America's acceptance of it after the infamous photos from Abu Ghraib are released. It's clear that Flynn is lost in his own life, and that he needs to find himself, or at least some stability, not just for his daughter's benefit but for his own. The accompanying narrative structure may isolate those who prefer a more straight-ahead style—the poetic interludes and scattered focus are sometimes more distracting than artistic—but Flynn's life is so volcanic and his writing style so kinetic and punchy that others will be drawn into this gripping personal narrative.

Starred review from April 15, 2010
Poet/playwright Flynn (www.nickflynn.org) follows up his first memoir, the "New York Times" best-selling PEN/Martha Albrand Award winner "Another Bullshit Night in Suck City" (2004), with this spiraling inner monolog about being a father and being fathered into a brutal world. Though this work may challenge some listeners with its jumps in chronology and anxiety-laden prose style, reader Scott Brick (see Behind the Mike, "LJ" 10/15/09) does a marvelous job of maneuvering through the narrative's various parts, keeping his delivery rhythmically consistent while simultaneously projecting the right amount of emphasis and emotion. Brick's performance will hold listeners' attention long enough for them to enjoy and adapt fully to Flynn's unconventional work. For those liking experimental nonfiction, memoirs, and political reflections. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 9/1/09.Ed.]Lance Eaton, Peabody, MA

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