Philadelphia Inquirer // New Collected Poems by George Oppen

My review ran in today’s Philly Inquirer.I’m guessing it’s the first review of George Oppen to cite Ol’ Dirty Bastard. The book comes with a CD of Oppen reading his own work.

And the recordings of Oppen reading his own poems are exhilarating. You’ll want to follow along in the book. His voice sounds like a combination of Woody Allen and James Mason, and he swings a little bit, placing the accents and stresses in places we never expect. I’d recommend loading this CD into your iPod – somewhere between Ol’ Dirty Bastard and Otis Redding – and allowing Oppen to shuffle in the background the next time you’re hosting a dinner party or planning a socialist uprising.