Idea

Poetry. "Paul Hoover is an important sustainer of the comic tradition and one of our linguistic champions. He presents such a fresh and heightened choice of language, it makes reading feel like wind-surfing. He comes replete; he has as many parts of speech as there are events in the world. Always drama, always the shock of encounter. Phrases of equal brilliance glare at each other (it's we who are speechless). This volumes containes the best movie poem ('Tribal Item') since Frank O'Hara's 'To the Film Industry in Crisis' or 'Ave Maria,' only written for a VCR generation. 'Heart of Darkness' and 'After Cotton Mather' are among the most vigorous reexaminations of language we've got. There is the affirmative 'Urge,' the sustained scintillation of 'Sunlight in Vermont,' the luxurious virtuosity of 'From a Gazebo.' Hoover takes language out for a walk and exercises it. He offers the wisdom of wit. That's his accomplishment—no matter how entertaining, he's also clinchingly true"—George F. Butterick.