Index of Women

January 18, 2021
Gerstler (Scattered at Sea) brings her customary wit, playfulness, and emotional range to poems that expose the contradictions in ancient and contemporary concepts of femininity. These poems—some dramatic monologues, others more quiet lyrics—vividly render their chief thematic concern. Unsatisfied with “these endless ill-fitting versions of womanhood,” Gerstler summons the voices of women “such as she, swallower of swords, sorrow, and semen... she who is a physical stud.” Gerstler subverts the conceit of women as objects in a poem in which a tube of toothpaste, a lamp, and a butter knife all begin to criticize the speaker who muses, “How long have objects been/ nursing these grievances?” Another poem reverses the male gaze, resulting in the male object crystallizing into just another piece of art to be consumed by hungry connoisseurs: “We imbibe his rich shadow. Milky light/ showers down through skylights and we guzzle/ that too, open mouths glowing like kilns.” This wonderfully intelligent and imaginative collection upends conventional gender norms in favor of illustrating womanhood in all its idiosyncrasy, complexity, and fullness.

March 1, 2021

Witty, conversational, ironic, Gerstler's poetry portrays everyday scenes with psychic depth. As she mixes offbeat humor and dark observations, the National Book Critics Circle Award winner (for Bitter Angel) lets her words take her wherever they will--for better or for worse. Gerstler's latest collection contains mostly language poems that work through a hallucinatory build-up of images and impressions. These come to the poet often as she's doing something mundane, like looking at her dresses hanging in the closet ("Update"), or noticing the dirty dishes piled high in the kitchen sink ("A Monument of Unwashed Dishes"), which she eventually washes while reminiscing and looking out the window. Often, the poems revolve around such womanly tasks, and as she thinks about them, Gerstler sees that they amount to what she calls "a feminine epic [that] lives in her under wraps / like a field of sheet draped statues." Throughout, she uses minimal punctuation, which inserts a swirl of energy into the poems. VERDICT As her impressions flow together, they add a surreal atmosphere, suggestive of art by Toulouse-Lautrec--as when his dancers, spectators, and settings enhance one another, contributing to a sense of mystery that, although difficult to decipher, is compelling. Recommended for most poetry collections.--C. Diane Scharper, Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, MD

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