"This" Ameri-can-ah

by Curtis L. Crisler

The voices in Curtis L. Crister's “This” Ameri-can-ah are hypnotized by the cynosures surrounding the foreground, background, and periphery of their fascinating environment. These voices scrutinize the past, present, and future lives of famous and everyday individuals through historical connections, cultural motifs, and a Midwestern sensibility. “Place,” “body,” “soul,” and “identity with place” rumble wild within this collection. These poems pay taxes and ride out inflation. These poems encapsulate our fire and our American spirit, and fight with the truth to connect with our humanity, to elucidate our inheritance to breathe the same air. These poems suffer to bring us ALL home. Get a copy @ www.cherrycastlepublishing.com

78 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 2016

About the author

Curtis L. Crisler is an associate professor of English at Purdue University Fort Wayne.

Reviews

[Justin Hamm · Rating 5 out of 5]

People, people. Read this book. Or, rather, say this book out loud. The poems are built of the language we Americans hear and speak daily, but Curtis gives that language a measurable pulse. His poems scrub away the sweet outer sheen of what we've come to call Americana and find a truer definition of the term, while at same time, somehow, hearkening back in spirit to what cultural critic Greil Marcus has called the "old, weird America." Curtis shows us a new, weird America, where Miles Davis could play for Barack Obama, where "good ole boys"--portrayed as part buffoon and part badass--fish barehanded, where holy men want to burn the Koran, and where we're equally likely to hear Vivaldi or Grandmaster Flash.