The French Exit
"What a complex and lovely book this is! Reading Elisa Gabbert's obsessively interior, technically rigorous poems is like listening in on the thoughts of a mind so fiercely observant and subtle that I find in them always some new twist, some surprising layer I hadn't noticed before. By turns moving and witty, sharp-eyed and impressionistic, Gabbert writes with technical sophistication and keen intelligence. This is a terrific book" --Kevin PruferElisa Gabbert's bold, confident, and unwavering poems pack a punch with every ending. They careen, dip and reverse. "It wants to keep / running forever, but / it can t stop stopping," she writes. Just when I think I want one of Gabbert's poems to go on forever, it screeches to a halt, but it is the perfect halt. This is not easy to do, but Gabbert has mastered the art of making a poem. --Noelle KocotIt s a pleasure to listen to the opinions of the narrator of THE FRENCH EXIT. Clear-eyed imagery and wit control the anxiety: "[A] boy at the counter disappears / or I can see through him." Likewise, in a fine prose poem: "Do not be afraid of angering the birds. What angers the birds is fear." The energy throughout Gabbert s collection has the clip of the French exit itself--allons-y!--self-aware, self-sufficient, in control, in touch. --Caroline Knox