Hunting the Snark

Booknews

Although suitable for casual browsing, Peters' sometimes whimsical, ironic, condescending, or "hipper-than-thou" classifications (e.g. feminisms, academic sleaze, the colostomy poem, the snigger poem, the trapped-wife poem, white poetry, the dying parents poem) actually yield a serious and important exploration of contemporary American poetry. His method is to present a capsule history of each category and then provide examples from different poets. Blessedly irreverent. (RC) Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)