Alice Fulton's writing has been characterized by The New Yorker as "electrifying," and the poet herself, according to Publishers Weekly , "may be Dickinson's postmodern heir."
Gorgeous language, lightly structured, even more personal, Palladium is challenging and satisfying. I rediscovered something that should have been obvious from my all too brief time in Professor Fulton's poetry class: poetry needs to be read out loud. I read Palladium to the cat, if he was in the room, or to the room, if he was not. I enjoyed this work more than the previous Dance Script with Electric Ballerina — but the works are very different and need to stand and be judged on their own, like children.
"On The Charms Of Absentee Gardens" contains a startling passage about the ruins of the World Trade Center — not dependent on, but eerily anticipating the events of 9/11 that wouldn't take place for another 15 years. That momentarily took me out of the poem, but made me appreciate it even more.
Quite simply, a stunning collection of one of my favorite poets ...as I said about halfway through this book, she is an unrelentingly beautiful wordsmith and, with all due respect, her way with words is simply genius.