In Which

by Denise Duhamel

In In Which, Denise Duhamel travels “the road not taken,” as Frost put it. Or actually, she cruises up and down the many byways and highways and could-have-beens. In these poems of speculation and wonder, often she doesn’t become a poet at all. Instead she’s a stand-up comedian or a hairdresser or an urban planner or prisoner in a Handmaid’s Tale America. Sometimes she’s not here at all, having already drowned at six or drowned in alcohol as a young woman. The poems in In Which indulge fantasies both hilarious and terrifying. Duhamel takes on the question of identities and how, through myth-making and erasure, we forge a life.

Genres: Poetry

36 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2024

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

[Kerfe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Duhamel's verse doesn't have lots of lyrical quotable lines but it is full of human life as it is lived, from the laugh-out-loud (Poem in Which I have Read the Terms and Conditions) to the poignant (Poem in Which I Realize What I Have Taken for Granted) to the unrepentant (Poem in Which I Break All My Promises) to the playful (Poem in Which Nick Helps Me Conjure More "In Which" Poems).

Thoroughly enjoyable.

[Renee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Denise Duhamel's prose poems may yet have converted me to prose poetry. She is witty, charming, and hilarious, while also packing punches. Her "imagined lives" for herself truly call attention to crucial contemporary issues. As Horace would've hoped, she teaches and delights.

What an honor I have to study under such an incredible woman and poet.

[Brittany Mishra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really liked this Rattle chapbook. All of the poems are scenarios "in which" the poet reimagines her life, or actually is just telling the real truth of her life. It's a lot of fun, and inspired me to think about my life in shades of "in which."

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strong, concept-driven chapbook. Some of the poems achieve absolutely brilliant turns, and a few fall flat or feel like they’re there to fill out the form. These are of the approachable variety, and there are some great, artistic takes on facets of social media and quirks of contemporary life.

[Peter Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Denise Duhamel is an American Treasure! Each of her books is a surprise for the reader who didn't know poems could both surprise and delight the way her poems do. Duhamel's mind is a fun factory of the imagination that creates words and images that, forgive me, blow my mind.

"In Which" RATTLEd my mailbox with poems that imagine her imagining more than a dozen different persona's, one that tries "to be social," one that has "Read the Terms and Conditions," one that "Refuses to Take Responsibility." These poems make me think and feel and imagine and wish I had written them.

"Did you ever wonder–What if poetry wasn't invented?" she asks. Actually, I hadn't, but it has and I am grateful that Denise Duhamel keeps writing it.

[Peter Longden · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent chapbook in which there are poems that take a sideways look at life - see what I did there? Funny, pithy, poignant exploration of the human condition. Loved her self portrait; when she read the terms and conditions; looking through the peephole at loneliness; has doubts but ends with some faith… I’d like to rea more of Denise Duhamel.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars.

As a poetry reader, I tend not to enjoy chapbooks. They often feel like they exist to cut expenses for the publisher rather than to excite the reader or showcase the poet. This is not helped by the fact that most of them are as cheaply printed as the chapbooks we made in high school the year our English teacher got the budget to go to Kinko's. I generally feel like I would have enjoyed the poems in chapbooks better if they had been saved up to be part of a larger, more carefully planned, work.

But In Which manages to feel like an artful object with a funky design and pleasantly smooth cover. And the poems both make sense together (each "in which" poem exploring a potential reality in the author's life) and flow in a way that feels complete and satisfying.

There's a lot of humor in Duhamel's work, twinged with regret and gratitude. The tone of her poems tends to be conversational, which leads to a quick, breezy reading experience. But the ideas in the work sink beneath the skin, sit there, and hum.

[Peggy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I too love chapbooks and was delighted to see Duhamel's name when I unwrapped this Rattle chapbook fresh from the mailbox. These poems felt like looking into my own psyche and I bet the psyches of the women I know best at this time in U.S. history. The urge is to give up, stop trying to please, and imagine other, earlier lives and deaths that would have allowed some innocence, some hope in the future. These poems are full of nightmares real and imagined in which the narrator/everywoman is impolite, binging, disgusted, anomalous, lonely, doomed, without rights, refusing responsibility, lying, and screwing all pretense of civilization. It's a tour de force, a hurricane, utterly believable, and in my world it expresses a contemporary collective unconscious. Kudos to Duhamel for reaching down there and bringing it back to show the rest of us. And thanks to Rattle for publishing and distributing this chapbook widely.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this chapbook. Each poem begins with the words “In Which,” as in “Poem in Which I Am Not Polite” or “Poem in Which I Drowned as a Six-Year-Old.” Each title leads the poet into a reality that might have been. What if she had drowned? “I became their angel/visited their dreams with my tiny wings./I never went through puberty, never grew up/to write my first sonnet . . .” These poems are sassy, accessible, and fun. In a world in which so much is confusing, this book is just a delight.

[Elizabeth Wolf · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this collection. It is what chapbooks are meant to be: tight, focused, a thing in itself that makes you think beyond its few pages. The opening poem Self-Portrait In Which I Am Not Polite, feels like the battle cry for women of a certain age. Right now women need well written voices in public spaces. Denise Duhamel did a fine job of that. Thanks to Rattle for bringing this out.

[Alarie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Which Duhamel explores variations of her poems and of her self-portraits. I’d have preferred a bit more variety in the topics, but she does employ humor and sarcasm like a pro. Many of the poems struck me as my typical nightmares, but maybe she means to say, “Cheer up. It could be worse.”

[Katie Kemple · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a joy to read a fresh set of Denise Duhamel poems. Her wit, ingenuity, and voice blast through in this new collection. Each poem imagines a different circumstance for the speaker's life - some macabre, some flippant, some sweet - all, highly relatable. She's captured the current mood of our country in a way that only Duhamel can.

[Tia Credle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Denise’s chapbook which is filled with her hilarious and colorful prose poetry. However, there are some poems that did a lot of telling and not showing for my taste. Though my favorite poems in this collection are “Poem in Which I Am a Cartoon Character”, “Poem in Which I Drowned as a Six Year Old” and “Poem in Which I Press Fast Forward”.

[Amy in the Desert · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent small book of perfect poems.

[LoriO · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great conceit for a chapbook. Love these Rattle collections of poets I might not otherwise encounter. Some really strong bits, some really intriguing alternative histories.

[Roxanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The more political poems were a bit more heavy-handed. I think Duhamel is at her best in the more personal poems. Overall a fun read.