{"id":1547,"date":"2014-02-15T19:58:07","date_gmt":"2014-02-16T00:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/uapress\/product\/import-placeholder-for-48\/"},"modified":"2024-09-23T18:20:37","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T22:20:37","slug":"fat-jersey-blues","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/blogs.uakron.edu\/uapress\/product\/fat-jersey-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Fat Jersey Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"
READ A SAMPLE<\/a><\/div>\n

I know I\u2019m holding a good book in my hand when I use the other to call my friends and read poems to them. How generous John Repp is! He zooms in on the moment, but he\u2019s always glancing at everything that surrounds it. His funny poems have dark hearts, just as the sad ones are clearly written by someone capable of belly-shaking laughter. They tell wonderful stories, yet they contain chewy little nuggets that are often indifferent and even hostile to story. I\u2019ve said elsewhere that a poem either writes you a check or sends you a bill, and Fat Jersey Blues<\/i> writes me checks faster than I can cash them. Oh, and these poems make me do something else that the good ones always do: when I hung up after reading \u201cBob Johnson\u201d or \u201cThe Maltese Falcon\u201d or \u201cBalcony\u201d to a friend, I sat down to write myself.
\n\u2014David Kirby, author of The Biscuit Joint<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

Saturated with the particularity of place, Fat Jersey Blues<\/i> dramatizes a world at once actual and mythic, joyful and desolate. As American as this book is, Proust comes to mind when reading it, time slowed to the tempo of a wide river sweeping all that is mortal toward its inevitable end. As Repp writes, \u201c. . . how can those days & these & all the others I can\u2019t fit\/into whatever I\u2019m saying here be lived by one person?\u201d Lucky for us, he\u2019s made all \u201cthose days and these\u201d fit into this marvelous book.
\n\u2014Lynn Emanuel, author of Noose and Hook<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

How rich the trove of personal, musical, and literary knowledge John Repp brings to this return to the New Jersey of his early years. The warm, adult gaze behind even the angers and disappointments in these poems is what I love in them.
\n\u2014Eric Torgersen, author of Heart.Wood.<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

John Repp\u2019s poems bear the weight of years as they strip away pretensions of all sorts. Who else could write a fully realized poem that so hilariously praises and corrects another poet, \u201cMy Wife\u2019s Ass (or \u2018You Annoy Me, Matthew Dickman!\u2019)\u201d? Whether sorrowing or comical, Fat Jersey Blues <\/i>is never predictable.
\n\u2014Lee Upton, author of The Tao of Humiliation<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

These are poems of elegance and intimacy, informed with earned wisdom and great heart. When “Blueberry (or ‘Another Summer-of-1975 Poem’)”\u2014one of the best narrative poems anywhere\u2014urges you to “Gather with me in the kitchen where the floorboards\/ sag & squeak. . .” accept the invitation. You will return to Fat Jersey Blues<\/i> often, grateful to be reminded how rare and essential poets of John Repp’s caliber are.
\n\u2014Linda Lee Harper, author of Kiss, Kiss<\/i><\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the Author<\/h3>\n

John Repp is a widely published poet, fiction writer, essayist, and book critic. Since 1978, he has taught writing and literature at various colleges, universities, schools, and social service agencies. A native of southern New Jersey, he has lived for many years in northwestern Pennsylvania with his wife, the visual artist Katherine Knupp, and their son, Dylan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by John Repp<\/h3>\n

Pages: 74<\/p>\n

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