Official Review: Mezzanine by Susan Kay Anderson

[Brendan Donaghy]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Mezzanine" by Susan Kay Anderson.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Mezzanine is a collection of poems and prose explorations by Susan Kay Anderson. This is the first collection that the writer has published and it is an impressive debut.

There are seventeen poems listed on the contents page, varying in length from two or three stanzas, to several pages. The title poem, ‘Mezzanine’, is the longest poem in the collection. Its observations and reflections are inspired by the time the poet spent working as a cleaner in the University of Oregon’s Architecture and Allied Arts building. All the poems in the book are arranged in free-verse form and some are interspersed with lines of prose. The prose sometimes takes the form of original lines by the poet. In other places, she uses lines of text from various sources to inform the poem it sits in.

The formatting of the book is unusual at times. In ‘Mezzanine’, and again in the final poem, ‘Man’s West Once’, some lines are aligned in such a way that the effect is of two columns on the page. There are also large spaces between some lines: the poem ‘Fire Cipher’, for example, seems to end on page seven, as page eight is blank. Page nine contains one single line, followed by another blank page. There are similar examples elsewhere. Since I am unsure whether these arrangements of text are the writer’s choice, or if they are due to the PDF format I was reading, I will make no comment on them.

This is a thoughtful set of poems. They are rooted in the writer’s upbringing in Alaska and Nevada, and by the time she spent working in Colorado and Oregon. For me, the strongest poems are the two longest, ‘Mezzanine’ and ‘Man’s West Once’. They are also the most consistent in the themes they cover. At their core, is the poet’s quest to find the place she refers to as ‘my West.’ Her West, in this context, is much more than a geographical location. It becomes a metaphor for the poet’s sense of her own identity, her sense of belonging.

Her feelings of uncertainty around these issues are conveyed in lines infused with a sense of dislocation. In the title poem, the poet imbues the mezzanine itself with a sense of mystery and wonder: ‘first you need to find it and once you are there you may not realize that you have found a place to look up, out, and back.’ The hours she spends in the mezzanine are the hours between morning and night, between dreams and reality. It is difficult to tell the night from the day, as sometimes the afternoons are shrouded in darkness. Time is uncertain: the poet confuses minutes with hours, a decade with half a century.

Where ‘Mezzanine’ has the atmosphere of a demi-world, the lines in ‘Man’s West Once’ have a more physical quality about them. The poet describes her friend Roy as having ‘gigantic mitts which knew irrigation and barbed wire.’ She describes a kitchen as smelling ‘of aspic and linoleum, failed cakes, bacon and eggs, and Delta’s cottonwood air.'

The shorter poems in the collection have a dream-like quality, which veers into the realm of the sub-conscious. I found these poems more abstract, their meaning much harder to discern. Other readers may enjoy the images they conjure up and worry less about the underlying narrative.

I am pleased to be able to award this book four out of four stars. It has been well-edited and contains no typographical mistakes. There is one example of mild swearing which should not offend too many people and no religious or sexually explicit content. On that basis, the book is suitable for all age groups. It goes without saying that people who habitually enjoy poetry will get more out of this than other readers.

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Mezzanine
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[ReneeBrown]

I don't usually like collections of poems, but after your review I think I might have to check these ones out. Thanks for the review!

[Brendan Donaghy]

I don't usually like collections of poems, but after your review I think I might have to check these ones out. Thanks for the review!

Thanks so much for your comments!

[Erin Painter Baker]

I am now really interested to know if the blank pages you noticed in the middle of a poem are purposeful or an artifact of the format you got it in. I think in free verse, the way the poems are displayed on the page, including stand alone lines, amount of space between stanzas, etc., can have much effect on the meaning, or at least shed light on what the poet is focused on.

[Brendan Donaghy]

I am now really interested to know if the blank pages you noticed in the middle of a poem are purposeful or an artifact of the format you got it in. I think in free verse, the way the poems are displayed on the page, including stand alone lines, amount of space between stanzas, etc., can have much effect on the meaning, or at least shed light on what the poet is focused on.

I agree with that. I always prefer to review poems from the actual book for that reason, rather than electronically. Unfortunately the reimbursed book option wasn't available this time Thanks for commenting, it's much appreciated!

[Alice Heritage]

The smell of failed cakes is a sad one indeed! I enjoyed reading your thorough and thoughtful review.

[sarahmarlowe randomeducator]

Oooh! This sounds like an intriguing collection! I love poetry that goes beyond beauty and makes you think. Thanks for the review!

[Wyland]

I like how some of the poems especially the title poem are based on the author's own observations and experience. Thanks for the wonderful review.

[Brendan Donaghy]

The smell of failed cakes is a sad one indeed! I enjoyed reading your thorough and thoughtful review.

Thanks so much for commenting!

[Brendan Donaghy]

Oooh! This sounds like an intriguing collection! I love poetry that goes beyond beauty and makes you think. Thanks for the review!

Thanks for taking time to comment!

[Brendan Donaghy]

I like how some of the poems especially the title poem are based on the author's own observations and experience. Thanks for the wonderful review.

Thank you for commenting!

[Corina Elena]

I am a big fan of collections of poems and this one looks like a winner. I might check it out! Great review

[Brendan Donaghy]

I am a big fan of collections of poems and this one looks like a winner. I might check it out! Great review

It's definitely worth a read. Thanks for your comments!

[Daniel_]

This sounds like another good collection-of-poems book. I just read one too, and it was a good-read.
Great review!

[Brendan Donaghy]

This sounds like another good collection-of-poems book. I just read one too, and it was a good-read.
Great review!

Thanks for commenting!