Exceptions and Melancholies: Poems 1986-2006 Book

Exhilarating, dangerous new poems and a generous selection of previous work.

Library Journal

The melancholies outnumber the exceptions in this two-decade retrospective drawn from Angel's three prior collections (e.g., Twice Removed) and augmented with 23 new poems. A poet of the interior, Angel conjures a half-lit, Prufrockian world forever caught between states of dreaming and waking: "As in this quiet, always. My body. A whispered song." The ghostly speaker, as if in suspended animation, does not inhabit so much as haunt his surroundings, warily observing from a distance ("Out there/ it goes badly for me"). A little lassitude goes a long way, though, and precisely drawn images too frequently meander into vague, muted non sequiturs that evoke a low-key John Ashbery: "heat-warped air over limp flags and bright brick,/ where an ordinary sigh breathes what's right,/ while the hard-core are properly disposed of/ on the far-reaching hills." Though the perspective in Angel's more recent work widens now and again including a "you" and a "we" along with the "I" and his diction loosens ever so slightly, he maintains rigorous tonal control throughout. The consistency is admirable, but the cumulative effect is claustrophobic. For very large poetry collections. Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, NY Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.