Previously Owned

by Nathan McClain

In his daring sophomore collection, Nathan McClain interrogates his speaker's American heritage, history, and responsibility. Investigating myth, popular culture, governance, and more, Previously Owned connects a villanelle cataloging Sisyphus's circular workflow to a Die Hard persona poem critiquing police brutality and joins complex pastorals to the stunning sequence entitled "They said I was an alternate," which recounts the author's experience serving on jury duty. Though McClain's muscular lyric explores a wide range of topics, the intensity of his attention and the profundity of his care remain constant-the final page describes a young girl in a diner, ringing the bell at the host stand, "just to hear it sing, the same / song, the only song // it knows." Insofar as this collection scrutinizes one's own culpability and responsibility in this country, interested in the natural world and beauty, as well as what beauty distracts us from, it does so in the hopes of reimagining inheritance, of leaving our children a different song.

Genres: Poetry

121 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2022

Reviews

[James M · Rating 5 out of 5]

This work is so precise it’s almost unbearable. Each detail leads to the next in seamless, devastating flow. It’s an incredible demonstration of craft. It’s what you look for, or at least I do, in a collection. It’s, as John Murillo says, just good gotdam poetry.

[Shawn Galligan · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5)
What a great collection! McClain is clearly an incredible writer, and he takes so many big swings in these poems. My favorite piece of this collection is a series of poems, nestled in the book's center, about McClain's time as a jury duty alternate.

[Carly Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found myself swiftly engulfed in this book--how it takes you, so simply, yet absolutely captivatingly, through each sentence, builds toward each poem.

[Zachtookthem · Rating 2 out of 5]

standout lines: the pond shimmering post coin-flip, flip flop heel smacks, the miracle of hands meeting in the dried mango bag. “Love Elegy” on pg. 101 is my favorite!