The Art of Subtraction

March 15, 2005
Parini's new poems, which constitute most of this flinty and satisfying collection, are edgy, angry, and satirical, cleansing in their ire, cathartic in their dark humor. Taut and unsettling, these works reflect the mental state of siege engendered by September 11 and the war in Iraq, manifest as pervasive feelings of helplessness, insignificance, and skepticism, the out-of-kilter sensation of nightmares brought to waking life. The poet, terse and to the point, addresses the reader directly in simple and familiar words that form poems as finely balanced and earthy as stacked stone walls. Parini writes with imagination and verisimilitude about nature, but he is most concerned with the doings of humankind, war and politics, our towers and power stations, the enormity of our lies, the indifference we cultivate as a form of self-protection. For Parini, a high school "is a kind of furnace," with the students as its fuel, and a family reunion is an invasion. His bracing new works are accompanied by key selections from " The Anthracite Country " (1982), " Town Life " (1988), and" House of Days " (1998). (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)