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Mule
Poetry. African American Studies. MULE is highly lyrical, obsessively incantatory, audaciously formal, and actually a very personal, very autobiographical book. In it, the author addresses his at the time failing second marriage (which he is no longer in), his son's autism, his own racial identity, and some of his beliefs about God. "Some books come down like gods dying to transform us out of our empty, shattered lives. MULE is such a book. Never shying away from sudden confusions of pain and beauty, Shane McCrae's questions are not why so much pain? why so much beauty? but, instead, how can they remake us? McCrae's is a living, breathing poetry made of wisdom and wrenching song"--Katie Ford.
- GenresPoetry
84 pages, Paperback
First published December 15, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
August 3, 2020
Very well done ❤️
November 30, 2024
I had heard of Shane McCrae before, but never read his work. Main topics here: marriage, divorce, parenthood, being biracial, attempting something like prayer. This is such a one-of-a-kind voice. How can I describe it? Reading his syntax feels like tripping over shoelaces, but the tripping is the point. He repeats himself, goes in circles, almost stutters, but the effect has an incredible emotional clarity to it. I had to click into a certain mindset while reading these poems, but as long as I could do that, I was able to love them.
March 29, 2014
I came across a poem from this collection ("Continuing") online, and it made me cry, and then for weeks afterward I kept thinking of it and kind of tearing up, so I figured I better read the whole book. Not every single piece resonated for me quite so much, but overall McCrae's sort of weird rhythmic gut-punch style really really worked for me, even when he was talking about things with which I have absolutely no familiarity.
April 2, 2017
Just one of the best books ever, no biggie.
September 24, 2024
I guess I am just a rube when it
comes to poetry / I'll retry
No this is / still
Nauseating
comes to poetry / I'll retry
No this is / still
Nauseating
September 17, 2024
One of the most unique styles of poetry I’ve read recently. It’s so melodic in its repetition, and tempts every word to be read aloud.
March 12, 2024
(read for class)
Supposedly these are free-verse sonnets. I’m still wrapping my head around what this means. I liked how this collection played with time and memory. The significant moments of our lives (marriage, divorce, raising a child, etc.) are continuously happening to us, and I think the breaking of verbs does a good job of illustrating that.
Supposedly these are free-verse sonnets. I’m still wrapping my head around what this means. I liked how this collection played with time and memory. The significant moments of our lives (marriage, divorce, raising a child, etc.) are continuously happening to us, and I think the breaking of verbs does a good job of illustrating that.
March 10, 2013
Shane McCrae, Mule (Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 2010)
I cut my poetic teeth, back in high school, on the dadas and the surrealists, thanks to Michael Benedikt's anthology The Poetry of Surrealism (a text that desperately needs to come back into print; to this day some of the translations in there, especially the late Michael Hamburger's, are my favorites of the poems in question). As a result, I've generally been less impressed with the whole autobiographical/confessional school of Whitman descendants that seem to rule American poetry. The exceptions—Bukowski, Richard Siken, a few others—are those whose poetic style is distinctive enough that at times it seems to overcome the material. Shane McCrae, whose Mule is exactly that sort of thing (a book about courtship, marriage, and divorce), is one of those poets. Mule practically bleeds style, and while I'm not one to complain when style gets in the way of substance (e.g. my review of Timothy Donnelly's Twenty-Seven Props for a Production of Eine Lebenszeit, a book no one else I know gets), it should be noted that at no point does McCrae ever lose sight of his subject matter here.
“We married on a speeding train the roof
Fighting with knives a speeding train we were
Fighting each other stabbing through the roof
The windows but where were the passengers
Stabbing each other full of holes but no
Blood and no bones the knives slipped through our bod-
ies and we didn't lose our balance...”
(--”[We Married on a Speeding Train]”)
I don't think it would be a spoiler alert to tell you that this will not end well.
This is McCrae's first book, but it doesn't feel like a first book; this is accomplished poetry with a strong voice from a guy who knows what he's doing. If this is the beginning of his career, then he should be fearsome by the time we get to the middle of it. ****
I cut my poetic teeth, back in high school, on the dadas and the surrealists, thanks to Michael Benedikt's anthology The Poetry of Surrealism (a text that desperately needs to come back into print; to this day some of the translations in there, especially the late Michael Hamburger's, are my favorites of the poems in question). As a result, I've generally been less impressed with the whole autobiographical/confessional school of Whitman descendants that seem to rule American poetry. The exceptions—Bukowski, Richard Siken, a few others—are those whose poetic style is distinctive enough that at times it seems to overcome the material. Shane McCrae, whose Mule is exactly that sort of thing (a book about courtship, marriage, and divorce), is one of those poets. Mule practically bleeds style, and while I'm not one to complain when style gets in the way of substance (e.g. my review of Timothy Donnelly's Twenty-Seven Props for a Production of Eine Lebenszeit, a book no one else I know gets), it should be noted that at no point does McCrae ever lose sight of his subject matter here.
“We married on a speeding train the roof
Fighting with knives a speeding train we were
Fighting each other stabbing through the roof
The windows but where were the passengers
Stabbing each other full of holes but no
Blood and no bones the knives slipped through our bod-
ies and we didn't lose our balance...”
(--”[We Married on a Speeding Train]”)
I don't think it would be a spoiler alert to tell you that this will not end well.
This is McCrae's first book, but it doesn't feel like a first book; this is accomplished poetry with a strong voice from a guy who knows what he's doing. If this is the beginning of his career, then he should be fearsome by the time we get to the middle of it. ****
September 14, 2016
the Big Project of the book (going from interrupted formal poesy to more regular poesy as the guy gets his life back together) is impressively rendered, although a little over-obvious. formally some of the techniques were interesting e.g. the dueling breakages in a lot of the earlier poems.
i would've liked some more of the more implicit themes (sterility via the mule/mulatto metaphor, the body as a prison, monstrosity etc.) to have been explored a little more.
"punishes the body with the body" (60)
"raw with birds" (78)
i would've liked some more of the more implicit themes (sterility via the mule/mulatto metaphor, the body as a prison, monstrosity etc.) to have been explored a little more.
"punishes the body with the body" (60)
"raw with birds" (78)
Read
February 26, 2011I think this book came up on Carol Guess' blog. Since I really enjoy her style, I bought it on faith.
What a nice surprise.
It reads a little like an echo, both the way it is written:
As we divorced Nicolas rode
Internal horses /And watching him
from the bench at the edge of the park/In wildflowers
him in wildflowers him in fileds/Of wildflowers him in fields on playgrounds which
Blossom from the ground
Must be covered over with foram with bark
It was and was possible
To love him just enough to sit there watch-/ing not enough for us to stay togehter
Not more enough than us
And the subject matter is seen as snatches of memories.
The author describes his divorce and he and his wife's emotional state about their autistic son.
I'm usually old school with my poetry, 20th century lyrical poets with a modern twist are to my taste, but this is a lovely little book that I highly recommend.
What a nice surprise.
It reads a little like an echo, both the way it is written:
As we divorced Nicolas rode
Internal horses /And watching him
from the bench at the edge of the park/In wildflowers
him in wildflowers him in fileds/Of wildflowers him in fields on playgrounds which
Blossom from the ground
Must be covered over with foram with bark
It was and was possible
To love him just enough to sit there watch-/ing not enough for us to stay togehter
Not more enough than us
And the subject matter is seen as snatches of memories.
The author describes his divorce and he and his wife's emotional state about their autistic son.
I'm usually old school with my poetry, 20th century lyrical poets with a modern twist are to my taste, but this is a lovely little book that I highly recommend.
February 7, 2013
A very strange narrative woven through poems. Is identity the thing we see ourselves, and constantly remember ourselves being through others? The use of repetition, and line structure are as unique as the thoughts in the poem. I very fun, entertaining, thought provoking read, about what makes us. How is the memory we see ourselves different the person we find in the present. The person we find through the eyes of others.
July 9, 2017
I have never read a book quite like this. The language is incantatory; the lines feel cut-open. The book covers race, Texas childhood, a child’s autism, failed marriage, family history, and yet it all occurs as if in prayer: the language transcends the subject. The lines stutter, breathe, and sing.
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February 22, 2014I'm abstaining from a star rating at the moment because I'm not quite sure what to do with this. Avant Garde is challenging. I can tell this is solid, carefully crafted poetry; I just don't quite have the necessary poetry-reading skills yet to know how to approach it,
February 16, 2011
Stellar book! An utterly unique voice in contemporary poetry. McCrae's use of repetition and syntax is masterful. One of the best books I've read this year so far.
July 19, 2012
Here is a link to my review of "Mule": http://jchariscarlson.blogspot.com/20...
September 25, 2011
I read it in one setting and am recommending it to friends.
October 2, 2012
I was not quite convinced until about half-ways through and then o how convinced I was.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews