American Noise Book

McGrath has a distinctive style and voice - modern, urban but not urbane, and yes, decidedly American. Most of the poems in this book take the form of long lines with no stanza breaks, which creates a great sense of urgency and immediacy. They tend to be list-like, a long spitting out of observations and statements about places as diverse as the Mohave Desert, Brewster County, Texas, Times Square, and Utah, among others. This is the American road trip in poetic form.

Unfortunately, for me, the sameness of style quickly became tiresome and I found myself flipping through the book looking for any poem with shorter lines, stanzas, or some other variance to get a respite from that insistent, unchanging rhythm. The title felt all too apt as some of the poems did indeed begin to feel like 'noise' to me - a blur of images and descriptions, words on top of words on top of words. While that works for the duration of a few poems, it becomes overwhelming and contrived when read again and again through an entire book.

American Noise is the kind of book I will take off the shelf when I want to read a single poem and get fired up or creatively inspired. The best poems in this collection are fresh and exciting. The worst feel contrived, as if they are merely going through the motions.