A review by ktrain3900
Jersey Mercy by Laura McCullough

funny informative reflective medium-paced

3.0

A gritty, down-to-earth poetry collection about the Jersey Shore. But then again what else could an honest book about the Shore be? I didn't connect with the poems in the first section, to the point I considered a DNF, and think perhaps they'd have worked better as prose, but the collection bloomed from there, with the third section ("Underwater Horse" and "Empathy" were favorite poems) a fine achievement of magic and reality, and the fourth, our requisite encounter with Bruuuuuuuuuuuuce, as smooth a ride as you'll get on the backroads of Jersey. Additionally, the endnotes are as interesting as the poems and worth reading, despite some surprising errors  (Monmouth Park is in Oceanport, not Eatontown, and WHOI is Massachusetts not Maine). You want a trip to the dirty Jerz, you want this book, not your MTV, and if you go to WindMill, you get hot dogs not burgers.