<p>In a world as terrifying as Plath’s and as mistake-ridden as Curly Howard’s, a world trapped in its Gothic, Southern O’Connor-esque box, Gay picks through the wreckage of the years with gritty idiomatic narrative, and sardonic lyric. The key word in this one-step-forward-and-two-steps-back little pamphlet of darkness is “alarm”. Yet eventually, <i>that which doesn’t kill you makes you stronger</i> is a platitude that rings true. The poems slog through farm tragedies, grueling football practice, problems with marriage and alcohol, stupid jobs, rejection of poems, and shaky self-esteem with plucky tenaciousness. Fatherlessness and fruitlessness may be the detours but thankfully not the destination. Gay’s quirky sardonic voice perfectly matches the foibles described herein. Far from the typical failure-to-success story, the collection does arc toward a hard-won edification of a kind, a sort of smile, if you will, even though weather-beaten and wry.</p>

Farm Alarm: Poems

Literature & Fiction

Gay, Mac

Poetry

Texas Review Press

Ghost Hunt

Eyewear Publishing

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gay, Mac. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Gay, Mac

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Gay, Mac. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Farm Alarm: Poems

Ghost Hunt