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A review by kylieayn
How to Make an American Mass Shooter by Denise Miller
dark
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.75
What was the most thought-provoking to me while reading was how poetics and artistry worked to hold this heavy subject matter. The traditionally formatted poems throughout, all titled “Without [insert evocative gerund]” in answer to the “How” in the book’s title, are all short, tightly worded poems split every few pieces by the visual prints. These poems were my favorite part of the collection.
Not only were the diction choices sonically lovely (I’m a notorious sucker for sonics, especially such smooth alliteration as Miller uses) and densely connotative to unfold, but the small size of the poems in length and shape was very impactful. In a way, they mirrored bullets—tiny but powerful, certain to cause a big reaction one way or another. The titling conceit also reminded me of bullets in that they kept coming, one after the other in the same way, hitting hard and harder as they went on. It lent to a foreboding mood as the book went on, akin to a chanting or invocation of an impending horror/tragedy.
I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about the visual print pieces. I didn’t look up how close to the inspiration articles they were, but besides redacting the shooters’ names and sometimes a missing article (grammar-wise), a blind reading wouldn’t suggest much change from the source material, maybe just more of a summarization perhaps. They felt out of place for me against the rhythm of the “Without” poems, but I think I would’ve felt differently if the Introduction was spliced up and inserted around the visual prints.
On its own, the Introduction came off a little heavy-handed to me, both in the conceit of education and as a contextual opening to the poetry. Personally, I think it would’ve had more impact as micro essays throughout the collection instead, and even Miller’s lovely art of shooting victims in this section would also be moving to see more throughout the book. Which again, such splicing would’ve more justified the use and placement of the article-based visual prints, as well as made me more prepared for the style/structure shift into the “Excerpts from ‘How They Got Their Guns’ […]” section at the end of the collection. (Maybe I’ve got it wrong and that final section is supposed to act more as a Works Cited than as part of the collection, but it came across to me as part of the creative work since it was a few pages out from the similarly styled Acknowledgments section).
On its own, the Introduction came off a little heavy-handed to me, both in the conceit of education and as a contextual opening to the poetry. Personally, I think it would’ve had more impact as micro essays throughout the collection instead, and even Miller’s lovely art of shooting victims in this section would also be moving to see more throughout the book. Which again, such splicing would’ve more justified the use and placement of the article-based visual prints, as well as made me more prepared for the style/structure shift into the “Excerpts from ‘How They Got Their Guns’ […]” section at the end of the collection. (Maybe I’ve got it wrong and that final section is supposed to act more as a Works Cited than as part of the collection, but it came across to me as part of the creative work since it was a few pages out from the similarly styled Acknowledgments section).
Overall, Miller is a precise poet, especially in brevity. The “Without” poems are very hooking and makes me want to read more from them!
*Review of complimentary ARC from the publisher, Querencia Press.