books 2008: Blue Colonial, by David Roderick

[supercheesegirl]

Poetry, for once. F read this and thought I would like it, and I did! Very much. Roderick grew up in Plymouth, Massachusetts, and so is fascinated by the history of the Plymouth settlers. The poems skip back and forth in time between a modern speaker and the colonial era. The poems are nicely arranged (see, I'm paying more attention to book structure now) so that the modern speaker seems enmeshed in the history. The poems are beautiful narratives, and Roderick is excellent at those glittering perfect last lines we all wish we wrote. I like narrative poems, and I really appreciate poems that are infused with history, so this book really spoke to me. My favorites were the title poem "Blue Colonial" and "Cordwood", but I really liked all the historical poems. Endorsed by Robert Pinsky, James Tate, and Eavan Boland on the back cover, so you don't really need my say-so, but I recommend it anyway.