Alliance, Illinois

by Dave Etter

In the tradition of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, and Edgar Lee Master s' Spoon River Anthology, each of the 222 poems in this collection is narrated by a different resident of the fictional small town of Alliance, Illinois. Their voices, individual and yet familiar, describe the ordered simplicity of life in the American small town during the second half of the twentieth century. Dave Etter's themes and images come from the very lifeblood of prairie Illinois-rivers, trees, cornfields, wildlife, county fairs, railroads and, always, the people and the ever-changing seasons. Deceptively, invitingly simple on their surface, Etter's poems reveal upon careful examination a remarkable psychological insight and a careful craftsmanship. Alliance, Illinois is truly one of the great monuments of rural American literature.

Genres: Poetry

240 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1983

Reviews

[Sarah Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of poetry by Dave Etter was published by the Spoon River Poetry Press in 1983. The book is currently available from Dave Pichaske through Plains Press/Spoon River Press/Ellis Press at PO Box 6, Granite Falls, MN 56241. The Peoria Public Library (Peoria, Illinois) was remodeled in 2010. On my first visit after it re-opened, I wandered through the library admiring the facility. Usually I would not go near the poetry section but this time I picked up this book. Each poem is named after a person in the fictional town of Alliance, Illinois, which is somewhere west of Chicago in northern Illinois. I loved the author's observations about life in a small town and the people in the town so much that I plan to buy a copy.

[J. Carroll · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elegant, inspirational, deceptively simple. Etter fused a wide array of poetic styles into a convincing portrait of a region, an era, and the people. This reminds me of James Agee's prose poems in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, and pairs well with photographs of Stephen Shore or Danny Wilcox Frazier. This is one of my favourite.