Metanoia

Starred review from October 17, 2016
This poetry collection from McCartney (The Love Song of Laura Ingalls Wilder) is part satire, part self-examination, and far more layered than it first appears. Working largely in free verse, McCartney tackles subjects that move from the personal, including love affairs, marriage, and divorce, to the philosophical, complete with asides, jabs, and barbs: "Don't you hate it when the Buddhists get all emptier than thou?" The poems explore the complexities of her collection's titleâwhich primarily refers to a spiritual conversion but here also applies more broadly to a transformation of character or stateâand of the speaker. Moving between levity and sincerity in a short span, often in the same piece, the collection can at times be dizzying in its effect, but it is not an unwelcome discombobulation. And McCartney's work is always tangibly real: "Mother said, âSmile./ Learn to cook Swiss steak. Sew a French seam. Be a good wife.'/ I think, now, that she should have known better." Or: "I am not alone./ I am in an exclusive relationship with myself." The collection is brilliant: short, sharp, and eminently readable. Although it is a quick read, it is a deeply satisfying one.