Blowout

by Denise Duhamel

In Blowout, Denise Duhamel asks the same question that Frankie Lyman & the Teenagers asked back in 1954—"Why Do Fools Fall in Love?" Duhamel's poems readily admit that she is a love-struck fool, but also embrace the "crazy wisdom" of the Fool of the Tarot deck and the fool as entertainer or jester. From a kindergarten crush to a failed marriage and beyond, Duhamel explores the nature of romantic love and her own limitations. She also examines love through music, film, and history—Michelle and Barak Obama's inauguration and Cleopatra's ancient sex toy. Duhamel chronicles the perilous cruelties of love gone awry, but also reminds us of the compassion and transcendence in the aftermath. In "Having a Diet Coke with You," she asserts that "love poems are the most difficult poems to write / because each poem contains its opposite its loss / and that no matter how fierce the love of a couple / one of them will leave the other / if not through betrayal / then through death." Yet, in Blowout, Duhamel fiercely and foolishly embraces the poetry of love.

Genres: Poetry

104 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Denise Duhamel's most recent books are Ka-Ching! (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009), Two and Two (Pittsburgh, 2005), Mille et un Sentiments (Firewheel, 2005); Queen for a Day: Selected and New Poems (Pittsburgh, 2001); The Star-Spangled Banner (Southern Illinois University Press, 1999); and Kinky (Orchises Press, 1997). A bilingual edition of her poems, Afortunada de mí (Lucky Me), translated into Spanish by Dagmar Buchholz and David Gonzalez, came out in 2008 with Bartleby Editores (Madrid.) A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, she is an associate professor at Florida International University in Miami.

Reviews

[Nina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. My head is spinning after reading Duhamel’s latest collection. I can only imagine this is how she must have felt as she lived the detailed experiences. The poems in “Blowout” contain a strong narrative arc; they document her marriage, its unraveling, the divorce and its nasty aftermath, and the beginning of a new relationship. Her renowned humor is evident throughout, which elevates this collection from merely being a rant against an ex. She is able to poke fun at herself as well as others, which lightens the darkness of some of the subject matter.

The book is divided into 3 numbered sections. Many of the poems are long, spilling over several pages, with long lines. This gives the impression that the subject is serious enough to warrant an extended look, yet the line lengths push the reader forward, almost as if they are urging us to read and move on, be done with it, perhaps a metaphor for divorce.

I love Duhamel’s titles. “How It Will End,” the opening poem, describes an argument the speaker and her husband observed while on a boardwalk. They speculate about the reason for the argument. The poem itself, and especially the title, are a large-scale metaphor for the end of Duhamel’s own marriage.
I start to coach the girl to leave her no-good lifeguard,
but my husband predicts she’ll never leave.

Duhamel references cultural figures and pop culture frequently. In a 3 ½ page poem titled “Madonna and Me,” she compares her divorce to the public revelations surrounding Madonna’s.
Guy Ritchie was walking away
saying he didn’t want her money
because he was a macho British dude
unlike my husband
who was neither macho nor British
and wanted every cent he could get
She then compares teaching poetry classes and doing readings to Madonna being on tour.
I was also happiest working
away from my husband
whose body left an imprint on the couch
like a chalk outline at a crime scene

In “Duper’s Delight,” Duhamel talks about TV shows that discuss relationships and how to read body language.
My husband smiles, a duper’s delight,
the kind of grin the expert says indicates a liar
who takes a secret pleasure in his fabrication.

One of my favorite poems describes a scenario common to those who’ve been through a nasty separation and divorce. The speaker has overdraft protection on a joint account, and after he leaves, her ex is able to withdraw any sum of money. Duhamel goes to the bank to close the account, and is told it can’t be closed without his signature. Two tellers look up the account when Duhamel starts sobbing, and see that while they are talking, her ex has just withdrawn another $500.
Shirlene deactivates the account, the numbers
unscrambling like a bad marriage. For a moment,
we become a girl group, Tina and the Bruised
Hearts.
(Tina and the Bruised Hearts)

The collection ends with poems describing a new relationship. In an extremely long poem, “Having a Diet Coke with You,” Duhamel states she started out using
“Frank O’Hara’s/ “Having a Coke with You” to model this poem”. The third stanza starts
What I’m trying to say is I love you
partly because you taste better than the blueberry smoothies
I’d get every day at 3p.m. after my writing workshop

“Blowout” is an enjoyable read. Duhamel’s voice is sassy. Her word choices shimmer and she is a master at enjambment.

[Shawnte Orion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Denise Duhamel's Blowout opens with her poem "How It Will End" where a husband and wife witness another couple's fight ("We can't hear what they're saying, / but it is as good as a movie") and begin projecting their own issues and grievances in a brilliant mixture of craft and confession. Her conversational style is the deceptive kind that requires much work and skill to end up sounding so casual (" `She has to just get it out of her system,' / my husband laughs, but I'm not laughing."). This poem was deservedly included in the 2009 Best American Poetry anthology and perfectly sets the tone for the rest of this intimate collection that chronicles the dissolution of her marriage.

The book is a "Self-Portrait in Hydrogen Peroxide" divided into three sections, with Duhamel finding therapeutic solace in the films of her "postdivorce Netflix recovery" and the parallels with Madonna's public split, in part one

Guy Ritchie was walking away
saying he didn't want her money
because he was a macho British dude
unlike my husband
who was neither macho nor British


before ultimately finding new love in part three ("Having a Diet Coke with You").

But as with any good trilogy, it's the middle section that dazzles most, so part two becomes her Empire Strikes Back, as she revisits her earliest notions of couplehood (in poems from "Kindergarten Boyfriend" to "Fourth Grade Boyfriend" and "Lower East Side Boyfriend") and detours through history ("Cleopatra Invented The First Vibrator") and language (with the English-for-Americans poem "My New Chum") until her worst-case-scenario year concludes with the death of her Father.

All the while, Duhamel's sense of humor is the buoy that keeps her work from ever sinking into self-pity, which only evokes a deeper sense of empathy.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Um, wow. This is a deceptively complex collection of poetry by one of my favorite poets. On the surface, it seems like simply a gossipy tell-all of a failed marriage, a collection in which Duhamel brings her ex's shortcomings to center stage for all to see. While it is all of those things (and, one must assume, a delightfully cathartic modicum of healing for the author), it is also a brutally honest look at relationships, hopes, and dark dark places. Somehow, Duhamel manages to incorporate her usual humor and pop culture references while simultaneously letting the reader into the most painful year(s) of her life.

This is also a neat example of a poetry collection with a narrative arc. Each poem works with the next to produce a memoir-novella sort of depiction. I highly recommend reading this collection in one sitting, preferably while reciting several poems out loud to your friends as they cook dinner, pour more wine, and talk about their own poetic and not so poetic relationships.

[silas denver melvin · Rating 3 out of 5]

has clever moments but just isn't for me

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Denise Duhamel has written too many books of poetry to mention, but it’s her latest collection, Blowout, that sees her accrued talents tackle what feels like a novel in poems. What begins with the prediction that love will not end well for the unnamed narrator sees us following her through the inevitable divorce, through a middle section that serves as a coming to terms, of stepping back through past lovers and the lessons learned to find acceptance, while the third and final section of the book ends with a combination of trepidation and wonder as the speaker discovers new love. These poems are fireworks of joy, effusive praise for the power of love. For everyone that’s ever mishandled their own heart, think of this book as instructions for righting the ship.

[Danielle Mebert · Rating 2 out of 5]

Most of the poems in this book don't live up to what I expect from Duhamel--the funky, cheeky, playful verse I've come to appreciate. I couldn't help but wonder if she was writing about the poet Nick Carbo, her ex-husband. I kept envisioning these poems were about him, which made it seem like I was a little too close to the subject matter. It felt like voyeurism. They felt a bit vengeful, like the poems had axes to grind.

[Amie Whittemore · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duhamel's BLOWOUT is funny and tragic, smart and vulnerable, pragmatic and hopeful. In it, our speaker takes us through her divorce, her father's death, her wobbly financial state, never once losing her sharp wit, showing us how humor (and poetry) can save us from losing our minds in times of overwhelming loss. I gobbled it up and can't wait to read it again.

[Courtney LeBlanc · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of poems about divorce, betrayal, survival, joy, and love.

from Duper's Delight: "This morning an arrow of light fluttered in the corner / of my right eye. The image shone like an exit sign. All my blinking / and rubbing couldn't send it away. I can't tell you / exactly when the glowing projectile disappeared, / but I can tell you when my husband did, / exactly six days later, on September 10th."

from Madonna and Me: "I'd dress up / for poetry readings but not for him / and what kind of wife did that // a wife tired of working two jobs / while her husband worked none"

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

At this point, I see a Denise Duhamel book; I read it.

These poems are at points angry, triumphant, regretful, wistful, ravenous, and thought-provoking, usually multiple at the same time. But when they are sweet, they are so purely and deliciously sweet, like biting a cold and crisp apple. Read the delightful and heart-melting love poem at the end of this book, and you'll see why the apple metaphor is so apt.

I loved Blowout. Denise and her poems are always a knockout.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

My introduction to Denise Duhamel.
Clever, honest, funny, quirky, sad, unexpected are all words that come to mind.

[abby w · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 stars

[JH · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book so much. I heard the first poem of the book on a poetry podcast (the one about the lifeguard’s fight with his girlfriend) and loved it so much I bought the book to read the rest! The poems all feel so personal, almost like beautifully written succinct essays. I cried and laughed. They’ve really inspired me in my own writing.

Well done by this author!

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've never felt comfortable with poetry, or rather, confident enough to appreciate what or how I'm "supposed to". I know a lot of it comes down to how the subject was presented in school and the tired classics selected with no consideration for the audience. However, one of the benefits of getting older is learning to see past such artificial pretensions and accepting what it is you do like about a particular artform. For example, I've never connected with vague, abstract lyrics, preferring songs about, say losers and lovers, over songs about loss and love. Too much poetry just felt like too much work. Maybe I'm just lazy.

But my take on poetry changed when I discovered Charles Bukowski and realized that the problem may have been I was just reading the wrong type of poetry. This book by Duhamel--picked up on a whim--may not share those same pulpy themes, but the style is on the same plane--concrete free verse, almost prose, storytelling. The poems here are honest and funny, raw and relevant.

[Aseem Kaul · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not, in general, a big fan of confessional poetry about failed marriages (which seems to be the flavor of the month - see Sharon Olds' Stag's Leap), but Duhamel's witty, conversational poems have a charm all their own, and she is sufficiently self-aware (and self-amused) a raconteur to make this an enjoyable read. Blowout is by no means the most stirring or profound collection of poetry to come out this year - indeed, it reads more like a cross between a collection of micro-fiction and a humorous memoir - but it's definitely worth a quick read. I especially loved 'Having a Diet Coke with you', Duhamel's delightful tribute to Frank O'Hara, which reminded me what a gem the original is:

http://youtu.be/YDLwivcpFe8

[AJ Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't love this as much as some of my friends, who have excellent taste in poetry, so that this is three stars rather than four is more a question of taste and that I'm rating this for myself and not a book review. It earns three stars, and my enjoyment and attention all through reading it because of the beauty of the craftsmanship, and my awe that she can write in such and exposed and exposing way. That confessional nature is mostly why I don't love this book, but I absolutely respect the naked courage this book took to write.

[Patricia Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so pleased to feature poems by Denise Duhamel in

Issue 1 of SR

And I have to say I’m glad the person I was meeting for lunch showed up about 45 minutes late since it gave me more time to savor these poems. The work in this collection is hugely angry, raw, honest. I wonder if this collection would have ever been published by an emerging poet--I feel like an editor might not have taken a chance on it without the history of the oeuvre behind it.

[Annette Boehm · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Blowout, Denise Duhamel talks about love and betrayal, about coming to terms with being cheated on. She also talks about how Madonna's divorce helped her through hers, and fantasizes about a strip club where women keep adding layers and layers of clothing. This is a quirky collection. It feels very personal, like a set of conversations with a girlfriend, maybe over a glass of wine or flavored vodka. To read more about the book, check out my blog post.

[Erica Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

The narrative arc of this collection made me read faster than usual, flipping eagerly from poem to poem. I rooted for the speaker, swooning as she emerged from her nasty divorce to find romance again. "Sleep Seeds" is one of the most original love poems I've read in years. But even in the bleakest parts of this collection, there's wit and charm.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I understand this author has several other books of poetry, so i will give one of her earlier books a try. I understand she has some die-hard fans.

This book read a bit more like narrative memoir, less like poetry.

I did like some of the poems that were not about divorce, and when she explored bigger issues.

[Victoria · Rating 5 out of 5]

My kindergarten boyfriend bought me this book. It's an open wound of a failed marriage. It's a meditation on what it is to be loved and then not loved. It's a book of confessional poetry that will make you three parts sad, two parts delirious, and one part soda water.

[Mark Dzula · Rating 4 out of 5]

These were largely poems centered on an ugly divorce. The poems weave a dense and troubling narrative, but Duhamel adds a few outliers in there that are like little fireworks. She ends on a hopeful note and returns to love. I appreciated her meta-awareness and savvy.

[Emily Rems · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been a fan of Denise Duhamel's work for 20 years and her writing still startles and amazes me. If you've ever had a broken heart, these poems will ring deeply, uncomfortably true. And if you haven't, keep this title in mind in case you ever do.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Addictive read!

Some of the narrative poems felt a bit prosy, as if removing the enjambments would turn the poem into a piece of conversation.

Some of Duhamel's poems were absolutely brilliant, illuminating the arc of the tenderness of love and the reality of loneliness and suffering.

[Jan Moens · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10

[wildct2003 · Rating 3 out of 5]

ok collection; one could skip section 3 and not miss much.

[Jenny Curtis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant!

[birdmaddgirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

looks so easy-breezy, but damn what a lot of work these poems must have been. great stuff.

[whoever whenever · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything that I love about modern poetry, done with an elegant and mad skillfulness. Honestly, I have a hard time describing poetry I like. Usually just end up saying "go read it."

go read it.