Mystery Train

by David Wojahn

Book by Wojahn, David

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just mentioned in my previous review that reviewing poetry is difficult for me. It hasn't gotten any easier with David Wojahn's collection titled Mystery Train. Wojahn's work ranges from narrative poems that reflect experiences well outside his own--showing his ability to tell stories from various points of view--to a series of imaginative snapshots from the lives of various rock 'n roll legends which combines actual events with fictional story lines. These poetic vignettes reflect the range of human experience from comedy to tragedy, from love to despair. An interesting and ambitious collection from a very good poet. Three and a half stars.

A few lines that I particularly liked:

I aimlessly walked that day, and every day for six
uneventful years. My students
find your poems "cranky and obscure." A dull-witted Brit
has written your
unreadable life.

* * *
How wrong and petty any life is.
This poem is not for you.

~from "A Fifteenth Anniversary: John Berryman (January 1987)"

Always people say you walk
ahead into the future, though in truth
you walk backwards towards it, and only
the past spreads its vista before you,

though always, my friends, it is fading.
And you try to remember what it is that you
believed in. You try very hard.
You wait. You watch until it's gone.
~from "In Hiding"

This was first posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

You will find very little self-involved twaddle in this collection, as Wojahn's imagination allows him to find much more interesting subject matter than himself to write about. The bulk of this collection is a series of Rock 'n' Roll sonnets that show Wojahn to be an extremely skilled formalist-- his language is so smooth and conversational that you can easily miss their construction. The poems themselves are fabricated stories that intersect with iconic pop culture events, personas and symbols told from surprising points of view and settings: through the voice of a well known poet in a hospital, from the set of an epic war film, and from the perspective of a star's manager to name a few. When Wojahn's wit and humor hit the mark, he manages to add a great deal of depth to his subject matter while still remaining faithful to its character. This is a work deserving much more acclaim than it typically gets.

[Matt Proctor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book. Hard to find poetic narrative poems in this age of abstract Ashbery and New York school imitators. Really funny stuff, poignant at times. Able to draw sharp characterizations of pop culture, historical and everyday characters in very few lines. A great book for people who don't like poetry

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the sonnets the most. "The Assassination of John Lennon as Depicted by the Madame Tussaud Wax Museum, Niagra Falls, Ontario, 1987" is probably my favorite--creepy, transcendent, heart wrenching.

[Courtney · Rating 5 out of 5]

I especially like the poem that marries a Jimmy Cliff song to a description of electrojacking a tiger. I think it's called, Raja in Babylon.

[Joseph Egan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the unnamed Sections I and III the most. These are more personal poems, seemingly more personal vignettes. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy most of Section II, which is called Mystery Train, and which consists of poems about famous figures in rock, blues, and R&B from 1956-1988. Some of them are completely fabricated, while others are based on real events that have been transcribed elsewhere. Overall, an excellent collection, but I can see myself revisiting the personal poems often. There is real depth there.

[Jess Bae · Rating 4 out of 5]

I expected this to be corny Baby Boomer rock nostalgia but it was... delightful. He tries on lots of characters in lots of apocryphal scenes, and I trust his empathy. Lovely images to read before bed. If you like Cocaine and Rhinestones you might really enjoy this.

[Bethany · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple of poems in this book struck me, really struck me. "Shroud", for instance, was incredible, as were the last couple of poems in the book. But a lot of them had just so many background or setting details that they lost the point, for me. There was nothing interesting being done in them for me. Overall, by the time I got to the end, I was getting a bit bored of him and wanted it to be done. It's not bad poetry, it's just not my thing.

That being said, I did really love that all of his poems were inspired by something. A book, music, an event in music history, etc. That's incredibly interesting and I would like to do something with it myself.

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the poems in the first section really appealed to me. "Shroud," for example. And yeah, let that be a warning — if these were prose fanfiction they'd be darkfic and require many warning tags. I would only read these when you are in a mood to read depressing things.

The middle section, the rock history poetry, lost me almost completely even though I was able to ID most of the subjects. (As in "and roll" rather than geology.) The third section, I don't remember at all.

[Erin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think we can say seminal here without a self-aware cocked eyebrow.