Overview

A Town Like That depicts small-town life through poems that are empathetic, witty, and bold. The characters here are the people all of us have known. Many of them show up in a poem called ""High School Reunion"" the almost-boyfriend, the fast girl, the anorexic, the teacher whose students don't know he is gay. The speaker in the poems sometimes yearns toward the trappings of an idealized suburban family life, but more often she leans toward a wildness and freedom that seem almost, but not entirely, out of reach. In the final poem the speaker meets with her cousin and close childhood companion in a local bar, and they lift glasses, wondering ""how everything and nothing has changed.""

Full Product Details

9798990747401

Table of Contents

Reviews

"""I want to be a stranger in a town like that,"" the line that opens this accomplished collection of poems by Pat Mottola, establishes the crucial distance that underlies these poems, relying as so many do on the eye of a small town spectator who, keeping her distance, gives us those who are overlooked, misfit, homeless, long gone, or just plain ordinary: everyone has a story...This distanced eye makes wit and satire possible; in poems of estranged relationship, the distancing increases the sense of estrangement and allows for a wicked humor. Despite distancing, in the best of these poems, Mottola is able to sow seeds of compassion and acceptance. -Margaret Gibson, Connecticut State Poet Laureate Emerita In a time when ""I see you"" has become a clich�, let it be known that Pat Mottola sees into, under, around, and beyond people. There's Annie, who ""plants/herself near the bottle return/like a native flower"" and Mack, who ""counts the bricks in the sidewalk/like Gretel's breadcrumbs."" Whether her subject is the high school hottie turned addict, the vet whose PTSD mirrors her explosive father's, or herself who has always ""wanted,"" her imagination makes you wonder how you yourself might be re-visioned. Her insight and killer last lines produce some of the most surprising poems you'll ever find. -Pegi Deitz Shea, two-time winner of the Connecticut Book Award This outstanding collection of poems reflects the imagined lives of people in timeless small-town America. Mottola is a skilled writer, also an astute observer of human behavior and everyday life. These nuanced portraits will strike a resonant chord for most readers. -Irene Sherlock, author of Equinox"

Author Information

Pat Mottola teaches Creative Writing at Southern Connecticut State University. In addition to working with students at SCSU, she teaches both art and poetry to senior citizens throughout Connecticut. Mottola is the author of two previous poetry collections. She is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Cheshire, Connecticut.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available