Reviews

Hawaiian Shirts in the Electric Chair by Scott Laudati

hsienhsien27's review

3.0

I'm not sure if KUBOA is going to be releasing any more poetry books, but so far they're pretty good. This one is more on the free verse style. They're less metaphor and painted images and more journal narrative, with a drop of metaphor now that it came to memory, but very faint. There's lots of cigarettes and broken hearts. And I don't know what it is, but I can feel a punk rock vibe somewhere. There is also some sort of Kerouc vibe to it too, a typewriter poetry, but I will admit that I never finished On the Road. Although, I feel like I don't have much to say about this one. It's free verse, it's romance, there's two or three poems that have that "spicy Latina," stereotype placed on his ex-girlfriend.You could've left out the "spice," because it's a stereotype, it irked me. But that one flaw aside, the whole poetry collection is fairly decent and very accessible. If Laudati played guitar, he would probably sound like Sun Kil Moon, lyrically, not sure if he can sing. It's the type of poetry that is a bit more comforting and intimate, due to the fact that it doesn't isolate you too much with bouquets of flowers. I'm not saying I don't like "pretty poetry," or "Emotional punching," poetry, sometimes I just like to read prose poetry or journal poetry.

Rating: 3/5

Originally posted here: http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot.com/2015/06/mini-reviews-for-poetry-books-decaf-by.html