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Alice Friman
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Friman dissects flora and fauna: the tropic
landscape of Hawai'i and the savannas of Tanzania and Kenya, all
roiling with lava, lions, vultures, the picked-over skeletons of
zebras, as well as the familial skyline of working-class uncles,...
Aunt Sadie, and Daddy in his Depends. Beauty resides here not in
prettiness but in a scalpel precision that breaks the heart.
–Vince Gotera, North American Review |
BUY
THIS BOOK
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Here's a poet with lively eyes, ears, and
imagination. Her poems engrave themselves in memory by their accurate
metaphors and sharp details. She can be wild without losing control,
tender without ever waxing sentimental.... [H]er collection is strong
and engaging and full of surprises all the way through. It's a Zoo
worth returning to for a month of Sundays.
–X. J. Kennedy,
Judge awarding Ezra Pound Poetry Award
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The book is about the harnessing of
wildness—especially in humans.... Friman's deft use of metaphor and
her ability to choose revelatory detail are equally compelling.... A
meditation on the frailty of permanence and the permanence of frailty,
Friman's passionate and passionately honest collection demonstrates
the tremendous power of this seasoned poet.
–Andrea Hollander Budy, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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This zoo is the entire planet Earth, tracing its
mathematically measured dance through the spheres, carrying a
crazy-quilt cargo of creatures and visions, casting shadows and
darkness before it. Its fearsome wonders perform as their DNA and
destinies command, usually indifferent to the effects on their fellow
passengers, sometimes finding pleasure in cruelty.... It is a
beautiful book, this Zoo, a collection of poems of maturity, filled
with wisdom and delight and fearsome wonders.
–Charlotte Sargeant, Indianapolis Star
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For Friman, everything is fair game; and
everything is fully dimensional. While there are self-referential
moments, they are not confessional; we want to know what she's
thinking, following her eye along the trail of a safari, the movement
of a constellation, the slide of breasts on an aging chest. As a
result, we find art that is fully dimensional. Instead of being
self-satisfying, these poems have an emotional depth balanced by the
sharp edges of language, slick and laserlike. And often on these
journeys we find ourselves.
–Julie Pratt McQuiston, NUVO Newsweekly (Indianapolis)
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What [Friman] observes of the human condition is
worth listening to for its newness, its visceral surprises. It is a
language textured rich and sassy, sometimes painfully poignant as in
"Mary's Boys" and "Wrapping Up the Lost," the
middle sections of the book dealing with ancestry, the loss and love
of family. Friman's Zoo also takes the reader from the landscapes of
Indiana to the plains of Africa and the coastal waters of Hawaii in
poems layered with history, the natural violence of the animal world,
and all the metaphorical wonders therein of a skillful and, at times,
wondrous poet. In my opinion, the women are outdoing the men these
days in the realm of poetry, and Alice Friman is one of the great
doers in a very prolific period of publishing.
–Roger Pfingston, Amazon.com
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The logic of "The Drawstring" develops
through complicated associations, from bayberry to baby to drawstring
bag to the puckered mouth of an old face to a bird accidentally
incinerated in the furnace. The last association is the most difficult
and, for the poet, the most dangerous, because it requires the longest
leap. Like the "shroud for the baby," the bird consolidates
images of life and death, becomes death in the house, a
"panic" just beneath the daily living. The author
gives us a fresh look at an old paradox, shows us that living and
dying are the same thing, all ends pulling together. Her images are
surprising, and she allows them to unfold the poem's themes rather
than state them herself and thereby dissipate their power. As her
final question indicates, she hasn't resolved all the issues but is
grappling with them. The poem itself is a superb record of her
struggle, one in which we must participate.
–Neal Bowers,
awarding the 1995 Hopewell Review Award for Excellence in Poetry to
Friman's "The Drawstring,"
which is collected in Zoo
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