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Need Machine by Faulkner, Andrew (2013) Paperback
"After reading Mr. Faulkner's incredible book, something happened. I began to feel bad for the person I was before reading his poems. The poet 'I've placed dynamite around your heart and a bit / in your teeth. How bored you must have been / before you met me.' And he's right. It was so goddamn boring before we met him."—Matthew Dickman Need Machine clamors through the brain like an unruly marching band. Both caustic and thoughtful, these poems offer a topography of modern life writ large in twitchy, neon splendor, in a voice as sure as a surgeon and as trustworthy as a rumor. Andrew Faulkner co-curates The Emergency Response Unit, a chapbook press. This is his first book.
- GenresPoetry
Paperback
First published April 19, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 8, 2013
I got this title from NetGalley to pre-read.
Sometimes a poem and a reader just don't connect--sometimes that is the reader's fault, and sometimes the fault lies with the poem (and the poet). In this case, there was no connection between me and Faulkner's collection, and the fault was largely in the poems.
Faulkner has some great lines--wonderful, vivid, full of life sorts of lines. But they are scattered throughout a bunch of messy, lost lines that are going nowhere. I found poem after poem that had no idea of what it was doing, where it wanted to take the reader, and then both poem and reader are left feeling like a wet noodle. Each poem tries too hard, like a child who behaves shockingly because he knows that's the only way to capture a parent's attention.
I have long held that good poetry is accessible, it takes the reader on a journey, and it usually ends up in a place unexpected. Faulkner's collection feels purposefully unaccessible as it flaunts it's randomness and ends up nowhere.
Sometimes a poem and a reader just don't connect--sometimes that is the reader's fault, and sometimes the fault lies with the poem (and the poet). In this case, there was no connection between me and Faulkner's collection, and the fault was largely in the poems.
Faulkner has some great lines--wonderful, vivid, full of life sorts of lines. But they are scattered throughout a bunch of messy, lost lines that are going nowhere. I found poem after poem that had no idea of what it was doing, where it wanted to take the reader, and then both poem and reader are left feeling like a wet noodle. Each poem tries too hard, like a child who behaves shockingly because he knows that's the only way to capture a parent's attention.
I have long held that good poetry is accessible, it takes the reader on a journey, and it usually ends up in a place unexpected. Faulkner's collection feels purposefully unaccessible as it flaunts it's randomness and ends up nowhere.
April 13, 2013
I honestly couldn't make up my mind if I liked it or not. While some poems were intricately placed and held me captivated, others seemed pieced together like some cheap word magnet set, unsure of what word goes after the other. Out of the book though I am fond of Young Liberals, and Modern Love. It didn't leave me with a feeling that I want to come back for more.
February 4, 2021
There were moments when I thought I could like this collection, but they were fleeting.
October 16, 2021
Amusing, but not amazing. 😇
February 22, 2022
This had some pretty good lines.
February 18, 2025
A collection of eclectic poems, expertly narrated by Will Damron. Fun stuff.
June 20, 2013
Well, I wouldn’t say I was “hogtie[d] with awe,” as Matthew Dickman promised I would be in his introduction to Andrew Faulkner’s Need Machine. However, I was bemused by lines like “The theme of this party is authenticity / so I sketch your portrait as an emoticon” and “There’s the love poem / and then there’s licking yourself clean” and “someone pisses on an oak at dusk / as if his urine were an axe” (“Notes on a Theme,” “Stage Directions: Exeunt, with Flourish,” “The Lobby”).
Although I suspect that I might be likely to accept individual poems for publication in the literary journal I edit, should Faulkner actually submit work to me, I have a more difficult time reviewing the book as a whole, mostly because its content reminds me of gummi-worms. These poems aren’t so easy to hold onto when it comes to summarizing or analyzing, though individual slithers are certainly colorful and make for a quirky kind of fun. I laugh. But should I chew?
Faulkner provokes metaphoric response, partly because he’s so quick to clip with quips that the reader can’t be sure she understands. Sometimes, he reminds me of that self-effacing friend who sidles up to me at parties to chortle something under his breath that might be serious commentary, but might be pointy-tongue-in-cheek irony. How seriously do I dare take anything he says?
Faulkner even seems flippant when he’s addressing a tumor!
“Indifferent continent where metaphors go:
zebra mussel, surgeon’s golf ball,
a connect-the-dots dot.
Death on a rusty tricycle.
Claustrophobe, you ask for a little light—
lungs open like a pair of hands attached to a kid
at a beach, open-palmed, saying, Look what I found.”
“Tumour” is probably the most somber poem in the book if that tells you anything.
Hopefully, this review will alert the right readers to what Faulkner has to offer even if this reviewer confesses herself incapable of explaining poetry jokes to her audience.
(Thanks to Netgalley for providing my copy.)
Although I suspect that I might be likely to accept individual poems for publication in the literary journal I edit, should Faulkner actually submit work to me, I have a more difficult time reviewing the book as a whole, mostly because its content reminds me of gummi-worms. These poems aren’t so easy to hold onto when it comes to summarizing or analyzing, though individual slithers are certainly colorful and make for a quirky kind of fun. I laugh. But should I chew?
Faulkner provokes metaphoric response, partly because he’s so quick to clip with quips that the reader can’t be sure she understands. Sometimes, he reminds me of that self-effacing friend who sidles up to me at parties to chortle something under his breath that might be serious commentary, but might be pointy-tongue-in-cheek irony. How seriously do I dare take anything he says?
Faulkner even seems flippant when he’s addressing a tumor!
“Indifferent continent where metaphors go:
zebra mussel, surgeon’s golf ball,
a connect-the-dots dot.
Death on a rusty tricycle.
Claustrophobe, you ask for a little light—
lungs open like a pair of hands attached to a kid
at a beach, open-palmed, saying, Look what I found.”
“Tumour” is probably the most somber poem in the book if that tells you anything.
Hopefully, this review will alert the right readers to what Faulkner has to offer even if this reviewer confesses herself incapable of explaining poetry jokes to her audience.
(Thanks to Netgalley for providing my copy.)
May 20, 2013
I’m still trying to figure out how I read poetry. Sometimes I fly through a collection, and sometimes it takes me forever, but I haven’t noticed a correlation between how quickly I read something and how much I enjoy it. For example, I flew through Taylor Mali’s What Learning Leaves because I enjoyed it so much. I took forever to get through Nate Pritts’s Right Now More Than Ever, but I liked that one, too. And I flew through Need Machine, but I didn’t love it.
This collection didn’t do much of anything for me. Many poems seemed clever just for cleverness’ sake. If a line takes me by surprise for shock value alone, it annoys me. (“Okay, so you’re good with words. But do your words actually mean anything?”) If a poet wants to dazzle me with his language, he still needs to make me feel something. Some of the best poets say so much in so few words, but those poets are rare. Unfortunately, a lot of the poetry I’ve been reading lately seeks to impress through linguistic acrobatics instead of through passion and emotion. And for me, that’s where this collection fell. Faulkner isn’t bad with his words, but his writing just didn’t connect with me.
This collection didn’t do much of anything for me. Many poems seemed clever just for cleverness’ sake. If a line takes me by surprise for shock value alone, it annoys me. (“Okay, so you’re good with words. But do your words actually mean anything?”) If a poet wants to dazzle me with his language, he still needs to make me feel something. Some of the best poets say so much in so few words, but those poets are rare. Unfortunately, a lot of the poetry I’ve been reading lately seeks to impress through linguistic acrobatics instead of through passion and emotion. And for me, that’s where this collection fell. Faulkner isn’t bad with his words, but his writing just didn’t connect with me.
June 15, 2013
This is an eloquent volume of poetry that impressed me with its language but failed to evoke a lot of emotion in me. Maybe that's because I am used to reading poetry that deals with emotions a lot, whereas these poems seem to mostly describe everyday events and objects with poetic similes. It has an interesting take on the world, makes you think, but sometimes the meaning behind the words is rather elusive. That shouldn't be a problem with poems because they can be written to be interpreted multiple ways, but - I can't completely explain it... they didn't always CONNECT with me. I did love the poems Modern Love and Don't Forget Tent Pegs, though. They somehow felt very genuine to me and made me feel something. I'd recommend getting a sample of this book to see whether you can get into the writing style or not!
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October 3, 2013Please check out my interview with poet Andrew Faulkner as we discuss poetry, baseball and his latest collection Need Machine (Coach House Books, 2013). Read the interview and 3 poems from Need Machine on my TTQ Blog now. http://thetorontoquarterly.blogspot.c...
November 4, 2013
While the poems were well constructed and sometimes quite interesting, there was something about the style and content of Faulkner's writing that just rubbed me the wrong way in some instances. Many poems reminded me of a satirical piece a friend of mine composed in high school, entitled "How to Write a Post-modern Poem". I can't say I'm as enthused as most of the reviewers were.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews