Hit Wave
Jon Leon
Kitchen Press, 2008
$7.00

Leon’s Hit Wave is a racy tour de force, a fake memoir written in an absurd world where a poet can live the decadent life of the rich & famous. The depraved, egomaniacal narrator is better at “making real life seem like movies” than directors are at “making movies seem real.” Not “academic cool” but “world cool,” Hit Wave is a mockumentary for the chapbook set. [Elisa Gabbert]

They All Seemed Asleep
Matthew Rohrer
Octopus Books, 2008
$10.00

“Don all I did / was see some shit / happen I wish I hadn’t / and then got on a night bus / which didn’t even charge me / and let me off way up here / and now I’m drunk and walking / to a cave.” Like the narrator, a reader familiar with Rohrer’s previous work is apt to feel blindsided by this mini-epic. But it is actually sort of a mini-miracle. Conjuring the likes of Hemingway and Pynchon in forty-three pages of short-lined poetry is no small task, and Rohrer does just that with They All Seemed Asleep. [Chris Tonelli]

Case of the Monday's? We've got just the thing. Two micro-reviews EVERY Monday to get your week started off right. High in fiber, low in sugar (and words, for that matter), these micro-reviews are clinically proven to help lower bad cholesterol. Mom's love them because they're healthy; kids love them because they're friggin' delicious.

Check out today's first installment:

Coeur de Lion
Ariana Reines
mal-o-mar, 2008
$15.00

Ariana Reines’ Coeur de Lion is many things—hip, pretentious, a bit self-conscious, maybe even a little affected; and, with its references to gmail, MP3s, jpgs and YouTube, contemporary with a capital C. At the same time, it’s vulnerable, sincere, tender, ironic, angry, sexual and sad. In a word, it’s great. Utterly human in its emotional and intellectual complexity. [Justin Marks]

Irresponsibility
Chris Vitiello
Ahsahta Press, 2008
$17.50

Chris Vitiello’s Irresponsibility is an Ammons-esque snowball of ethos. Propelled by one of the most trustable voices I’ve come across, Irresponsibility incorporates philosophy, grammar, domesticity, nature, mathematics—whatever’s in its path—often into the same poem: “Interruption is interaction // Iris says ‘All I can see is this’ / and points / As close as things need to be to be / seen as consecutive.” This book is both intelligent and down to earth, self-aware and sensibly happy. A rarity. [Chris Tonelli]

If you'd like to write a micro-review, send a less-than-100-word review to: chris@blackocean.org

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