Reviews
"I cannot tell half of what I saw,' writes Michelle Robinson, and then does, vigorously, urgently. It is no accident that her collection's title echoes The Night of the Hunter; this book begins and ends with death and perfidy, seen through an unblinking eye. In between, lives and places, films and books, characters and artworks clamor as the 'hunter' traces a path through hell, purgatory, and finally love in all its messy configurations. With moments of laugh-out-loud humor that would be goofy if they weren't so mordant, this is a compassionate and fierce collection."--Susan Wheeler, author of Ledger and Record Palace, "No woods here, but The Life of a Hunter nevertheless leaps like a gigantic cat 'far from God's irresistible ordering of reality, ' smack into ours. Michelle Robinson's first book is a brilliant and hopelessly antic poetry, riffing off of everything, from the crime novel to Shakespeare, into 'a trembling non sequitur, ' as she puts it early on in 'Pepper.' This is a powerful poetic study of the contemporary psyche, including hers, so the playful surfaces yield to emotional places. A vulnerable and refreshin wit emerges, artfully real."--Jane Miller, author of A Palace of Pearls, I cannot tell half of what I saw,' writes Michelle Robinson, and then does, vigorously, urgently. It is no accident that her collection's title echoes The Night of the Hunter; this book begins and ends with death and perfidy, seen through an unblinking eye. In between, lives and places, films and books, characters and artworks clamor as the 'hunter' traces a path through hell, purgatory, and finally love in all its messy configurations. With moments of laugh-out-loud humor that would be goofy if they weren't so mordant, this is a compassionate and fierce collection."--Susan Wheeler, author of Ledger and Record Palace, "No woods here, but The Life of a Hunter nevertheless leaps like a gigantic cat 'far from God's irresistible ordering of reality,' smack into ours. Michelle Robinson's first book is a brilliant and hopelessly antic poetry, riffing off of everything, from the crime novel to Shakespeare, into 'a trembling non sequitur,' as she puts it early on in 'Pepper.' This is a powerful poetic study of the contemporary psyche, including hers, so the playful surfaces yield to emotional places. A vulnerable and refreshing wit emerges, artfully real."--Jane Miller, author of A Palace of Pearls, No woods here, but The Life of a Hunter nevertheless leaps like a gigantic cat 'far from God's irresistible ordering of reality,' smack into ours. Michelle Robinson's first book is a brilliant and hopelessly antic poetry, riffing off of everything, from the crime novel to Shakespeare, into 'a trembling non sequitur,' as she puts it early on in 'Pepper.' This is a powerful poetic study of the contemporary psyche, including hers, so the playful surfaces yield to emotional places. A vulnerable and refreshing wit emerges, artfully real."--Jane Miller, author of A Palace of Pearls