Ignatz (Stahlecker Selections) Paperback – March 9, 2010

Incredible, remarkably innovative use of the Krazy Kat lens through which the complicated and unusual aspects of love, admiration and beauty fracture into a renewed kaleidoscope vision in the desert. Would be excellent without any knowledge of the cartoon - but as someone who has long appreciated the art of herriman it was an extra level of enjoyment to bring that knowledge to this collection.

What happens if you take it seriously?

Completely over my head in some way, but nonetheless amazing.

Not what I expected-- but I loved it. Definitely one of my favorite books of poetry I've read this year. A wonderful achievement!

Monica Youn is not an easy poet to unpack. Her terse, demanding poems can require repeated readings (ideally aloud) to fully grasp. That being said, the work is well rewarded. No analogy is superfluous, no allusion misplaced, and her cynical-yet-still-romantic grasp of human nature is like a pinch in the arm--playful and yet painful.

I wish I could have loved it like everyone else but was mislead by Publishers Weekly (wouldn't have been fair to penalize the poet with one star). But "...[I]ntimate familiarity with the [comic] strip is hardly necessary to enjoy these poems" is just not true. I understood nothing thumbing through the poems so returned the book.

Beautiful, rich poetry with the slow-burning power of a Turner painting. Full of vivid and inventive poetic imagery that you can almost eat. Not a literal interpretation of Krazy Kat--think of Ignatz as starting point, a cypher-protagonist through whom Youn conveys her view of the world. A swift brick to the head that delivers the unlimited possibilities of language.

This book is stunning. So much power packed into such short, small-on-the-page poems. Ignatz and Krazy Kat are about love (loving in spite of everything) and this book adds a few more chapters to their (and love's) story. Youn is a fantastically precise writer and these poems are knockout.