I just posted my review of Brian Turner’s Here, Bullet. It was the most difficult review I’ve had to write so far.

My initial reaction, some readers will know, was quite negative. But I’m afraid it was overly harsh. There are a lot of complexities in his verses that my initial reaction didn’t pick up on and that were difficult to pick up on in the first reading, so I gave myself four readings of the material to soak it in. After the fourth reading I’ve discovered that my first impressions were largely on the mark, but I did find some reasons to like the book.

Writing positive reviews are easy and negative ones aren’t much more difficult. With a positive review you just have to find the best examples of why you like a book and include those with your observations. It doesn’t take as much sweat. My review of Patrick Carrington’s Thirst is a good example.

Negative reviews don’t present much of a challenge either. Just as in positive reviews, you look for the best examples to illustrate your overall impression and make your case. Methinks I See My Father is an example of this type of review.

A mixed review is difficult because you have to find good examples of both extremes – the good and the bad – and if you find some level of mediocrity in a work as well then you’ll have to find the best examples of those. In some cases, as it was with Here, Bullet, you find examples of good, bad, and mediocre in a single poem, further complicating the review process. Then you have to determine whether or not you don’t like the work, or if there are certain parts you don’t like more than others, because of a prejudice or an aesthetic preference or if there is truly a problem with the poetry. In the case of Turner’s Here, Bullet, I think it is a mixture of problematic devices and my own aversion to realistic-imagist poetics and some elements of postmodernism, both of which are prevalent. But there are historical and cultural reasons to read Turner’s poetry. It isn’t necessarily all about the aesthetics. There are many things I could have brought out in my review that I chose not to mention because of space considerations – I didn’t want to write a book.

The first paragraph of the review is reprinted below. I hope you’ll click the link and read the rest of it.

Brian Turner’s Here, Bullet is a veritable image gallery of tactical observations. Well structured as a compilation and equally well packaged as the poetic memoir of a soldier who has been there and seen firsthand the surreal nature of 21st century warfare rather than the sound bite version from CNN, Turner’s voice is unique and credible, but that is its limit.

Read the rest of my review of Here, Bullet.