Alamo Theory

by Josh Bell

"Bell's work is a concoction of the surreal and the hyper-real, the hilarious and the devastating."— The New Yorker "One of the most tonally versatile young poets working today."— Boston Review “In poems that look dense but read in a fluid, easy tumble, Bell offers [in Alamo Theory ] characters and scenarios that border on the surreal (‘no one’s getting/ off this tractor alive, no one without/ a pod of vanilla, Stuck like a witch’s/ finger in the throat’) yet are grounded in everyday discontents (‘Apologies/ to the inhabitants of the condo/ next to my condo’). The observations are arresting and almost witty, almost wry, and a character named Josh occasionally wanders along to engage with others. Fittingly, voice (and the voice box) feature thematically, as reading this work is like listening raptly to a verbose, intensely smart friend expatiate on life.”— Library Journal "A contemporary knockout, Bell's poems run the gamut of they're seriously funny, bizarre, wry, ambitious, acrobatic, gorgeous. Sometimes they have zombies."— Flavorwire Joshua Bell's unnerving and darkly funny second collection of poems inhabits various personae—including a prominent series starring the garrulous and aging rock star Vince Neil from Mötley Crüe—through which he examines paranoid, misogynist, and murderous elements within contemporary American culture. Throughout are prose "movie poems" that feature zombies, a summer camp slasher, exorcism, and courtroom drama. From "The Creature": Like many humans, I enjoy lifting small, living things. Your wife qualifies, but doesn't like to be lifted. I guess it's probably because, as is true with many humans, your wife doesn't want to be eaten, and often we are lifted, by the bigger thing, right before it drops us on a rock and eats us. I understand, I say to your wife, lowering her body to the kitchen floor, her legs bending slowly as she takes back the weight I've returned to her, like an astronaut moving back into the gravity of the capsule… Josh Bell earned an MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati. He was a member of the creative writing faculty at Columbia University and is currently Briggs Copeland Lecturer at Harvard.

Genres: Poetry

82 pages, Paperback

First published April 12, 2016

Reviews

[Bryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Obviously some real work went into crafting these poems, but they are way too abstract and surreal for my taste. Parts of a few were something I could relate to, but there was little here I could say I enjoyed.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's that
feeling you get in the movie theater
when a character on-screen
is named the name
that is your name. They're calling for you
but it's not yours to answer. For a while
that name was real
but then it got
kept real. Did you see the ghosts
in your childhood home? At first
I wasn't scared, thought it a privilege
to grow up
in the middle of someone's
desperate afterlife
acted out in playroom
and a kitchen
no longer
belonged to. And did you see the bombs?
When they fell on me
they fell on nothing. Malibu, it was you
I saw there, taking your belt off,
too slowly, for airport security, just this side
of the demonstrative, watched you shuffle
through the gates
as the uniformed stranger, in another room
invisible to you,
went sorting through
your clothing
and your gifts. Whatever you had
in there, considered dangerous,
liquid with sunlight, it already
expired, or it blew up
years ago.

from "Vince Neil's Report to the Malibu City Chamber of Commerce, in Which He Refuses, and Finally Agrees, to Make a Journey to the Underworld to Visit with the Known and Unknown Dead"

Josh Bell's second poetry collection, Alamo Theory, is fascinating and frustrating. He refers to himself, or a persona of himself named "Josh," in numerous poems and, as the poem above shows, has an older, wiser Vince Neil (of Motley Crue) reflect on some kind of apocalypse which is never really clarified. There are some excellent lines and metaphors, but there is an inconsistency in the quality of the overall work. At times, I felt I wasn't privy to the barrage of references and allusions Bell shoots off. I felt like a third-wheel reading these poems, like someone outside the group overhearing a conversation whose context, significance, and in-jokes elude me. Then, suddenly in the middle of a 12 page poem, I would be rewarded by a line or metaphor stunning in its clarity and relevance.

It's a mixed bag, for sure--and not for the timid. But, with enough patience and perseverance, a rewarding read.

Where the I Comes From

Our days often ended and began
with the sound of voices raised
in song. Even after we murdered
our friends and neighbors. Even
after we brought the attention
of our knives to the neighbors of
our neighbors, until at last
the neighborhoods fell silent
and the cities quiet and the city's
city, the country then and next
the country, until finally the moon,
as if its own reflection, looked
upon an Earth that we had emptied
nearly back to Eden. Even then,
in that silence that seemed almost
a silence, sadly we were not
alone. All we ever wanted was
to be alone, to visit no one, to be
visited by nothing. But even after
we'd traveled to the nearby planets
and relieved them of their voices,
even after--and we all knew
this was coming--we fell among
each other, brother and sister,
until only I survived, still I heard it,
the universe subtracted of its skin
and hair, and yet the sound
of a voice, like someone singing
in the hold of a sinking ship,
unbidden and irrelevant, a fathom
and a fathom deep, but never fading.

[Matt McBride · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a hard book to comment on without looking foolish, as the poems revel in their absurdity. Sometimes we get allusions to theological texts, but they are more red herrings than anything. I saw the absurdity and excess of these poems as meant to mirror an America in a uniquely decadent decline, as seen through the figure of Vince Neil, who dictates the collection to "Josh."

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

The highs are so high, and the lows are so low!

[Hannah Schoettmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

josh always amazing

[Eve · Rating 2 out of 5]

some good lines sprinkled in but overall way too messy, way too all over the place, and definitely not my sort of thing

[Chris Roberts · Rating 1 out of 5]

Johnny Oasis did the midnight kick at The Broken Poet ...

that's when the stiffs did readings, drank Blitzo Wine...

and caught a mouthful of halitosis from stank cheese...

I toiled all summer on my life-freeze gun...

the day finally came, green light...

Johnny O gave the "Hell yes" for the coming weekend...

it came, Friday night and I charged into the bookstore...

I zapped his coworkers and those gathered for a reading...

They were all frozen straight-through...

And woudn't remember a thing when they woke up...

Johnny roved the left side, me the right...

looted through wallets, purses...nothing...

no wedding and diamond rings, gold chains...

Johnny was barking about gold teeth...

I told him no, too much time...

we were both sweating like crazy...

robbery is a read cardio workout...

all we got was about five bucks, poets suck...

we had to get something out of all of this...

we stripped everyone naked...

Johnny called the cops and said there was an orgy going on...

I zapped them again and they sure were surprised...

police paddy wagons hauled them all away...

next time we'll hit an armored car...

Chris Roberts, Lord Absolute

[Jamie Gogocha · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed many of the poems in this book. I loved that almost nothing was what it seemed. The language and metaphor bordered on dreamlike absurdity. The various uses of form and style throughout kept the poems fresh and engaging.

A downside to the stylistic language choices was that I got lost in some of the longer poems. The ones that were divided into sections, such as "Here Are Some Problems I Have with Your Wife," were easier to follow since the sections didn't allow the poem to veer too far off of the path.

I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys reading and/or writing poetry, but this would probably not be the best introduction for someone who is intimidated by poetry.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm... There's undeniably some clever wordsmithing here. It just didn't connect with me most of the time.

[birdmaddgirl · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4. there's so very much to like about this book. it's exactly the sort of book i want to love unreservedly. and yet.

[elise anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

King weird does wonderful things with language. This book is exciting in a tiny, internal way. Yay!