Book review: Seasons from the Second Floor, by Nathan Graziano

Seasons From The Second Floor is Nathan Graziano's third collection of poetry.  It contains 19 poems, most of which are shorter than a page and a half.  These are working class, blue collar poems -- not the academic poems found in many literary journals.  The poems are divided into four different sections by season -- "Night Walking In The Fall," "Winter Potatoes," "The Ants Prepare For Spring," and "Summer Specials."

The poems in this book are all narrative first-person poems, recounting various aspects of Graziano's life.  They span a broad range, from the mildly humorous (such as "Exercise") to the bluntly satirical (like "Living On Grove St.").  The poems are mainly written in short lines, for the most part with no wasted detail or drawn-out phrases.  Graziano writes well with shorter lines, such as these lines from "Potatoes Until Friday":

Thursday night. We stared

at a plate of homefries

and prayed

to a bottle of ketchup

upside-down

on the kitchen table

for one small squirt.

"My Sister On Her 23rd Birthday" and "Spring Cleaning In The Kitchen" are two of the longer poems in the book, at five and four pages, respectively.  The first poem ran slightly longer than it needed to -- the same things could have been said with less lines.  The second poem was enjoyable, and was split up nicely into contrasting sections.

Graziano's poems focus on life from a lower-class perspective -- wondering what he'd put on his dining room table if he actually had one ("The Landlord Calls"), trying to make a telemarketer understand that he has no money ("Life Insurance"), or stealing cheese and crackers from a poetry reading ("The Reading").  They are at times gritty and always accessible, exposing the world that some people will never see, even though it's right out there in front of them.

The poems are as a whole pretty good, but there are a few lines throughout the book that stand out above the rest, such as these lines from "Tonight I'm James Dean":

I want to feel like James Dean

and drip Hollywood

on the kitchen floor.

Seasons From The Second Floor is a 51-page chapbook published in 2001 by Green Bean Press.  The Green Bean Press website is no longer with us, but you can order the book from Amazon, AbeBooks, or eBay.  For more information about the poet, check out his website.

(Originally posted on Helium.com, 2009)

(Disclaimer: I earn a commission on Amazon and eBay sales made from links in this post.)

Book review: Labor Day, by Nathan Graziano

Labor Day by Nathan Graziano is a slickly-produced chapbook of six short stories divided up into three separate sections.  Any reader of Graziano's work (poetry or fiction) can more or less predict the contents of this book -- gritty, hard-edge stories written in a no-nonsense style with strong characters and straightforward plots.

The six stories are all entertaining, but the one drawback they share (except for the title story) is the lack of a point.  I came away from each of the first five stories wondering why the author wanted me to read it.  Every character Graziano brings to life is fully-fleshed and three-dimensional, but the stories they are thrown into read more like a random slice of life than anything else.

Graziano is a master storyteller, and his plots are all intriguing and original.  "Pal, the Pit, and the Pig" is the tale of a budding poet and his summer working as a dishwasher in a busy restaurant.  Graziano's tongue-in-cheek description of the main character's imagined rise to literary fame is the highlight of this story.

"Bumps in the Road" describes a journalist's experience with a harmless but embarrassing STD.  It is a short, mildly humorous tale that would have been a great story if it had a better ending.

"The Hand That Spanks You" revolves around a pretty girl and two guys' very different attempts to lay a hand on her backside.  Graziano's able storytelling and good use of background detail shone through in this story.

"Beneath the Golden Arches" is the story of an overweight ex-Walmart employee and an overweight high school girl, and how they come to meet each other.  Right at the climax the story surpasses the reader's suspension of disbelief, and the ending seems disjointed and rushed.

"Bad Lungs" describes a young boy's battle with the world, both on a physical and psychological level.  It is a well-told story that brings to life the plight of single mothers and their children, who are often forced to grow up before their time.

"Labor Day" is perhaps the most complete story of the six.  It describes a small group of friends' lazy evening spent drinking, and it wraps itself up very nicely.  This is easily the best story of the book.

Labor Day appears to be out of print, but you may be able to find a copy somewhere.  It was fairly priced at $5 (+ $2 S&H) from the publisher, Bottle of Smoke Press.  The first 50 copies of the book sold contained a letterpressed one-page broadside, signed by the author.

(Originally posted on Helium.com, 2009)