Country: USA
Genre: Noir/Poetry
Pages: 405 kb (eOriginal)
Synopsis:
This is a poem, so story kind of takes the back seat. There is Z, a woman on the drift since the death or her mother and there is X, a man who's after her. It's unclear why or at least I didn't understand why. Their motivations are shadowy, they're giving in to their own darkness and yet they're on collision course.
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Love
is the fear of abandonment
Love
is the wrong answer to the right question
Love
surrenders itself to some other
I'm sure you all have "that friend"' who plays guitar and really is into it. Whenever you're over at his place, he makes you listen to Dream Theater, Al di Meola, Dillinger Escape Plan, King Crimson and other artists you understand nothing about. Your friend is telling you "But they're pure genuis, they write in 13/9 and have seven different kind of pattern to their songs." Gibberish if you're not as into guitar and music as he is. There's nothing wrong with you, don't worry. Songs written in 4/4, with one or two patterns (I.E a traditional rock song) are awesome, but your friend is really into music for musicians. I don't normally review poetry here, but Snubnose Press' editor Brian Lindenmuth was really high on Steve Finbow's NOTHING MATTERS and convinced me to take a swipe at it. Turned out the writer in me loved it. It's as invested in poetry as I'll ever be. I don't like saying this, but this is literature for writers.
There was a storyline to NOTHING MATTERS, but it didn't matter much to me (pun semi-intended). The beauty is found in the experiment. It's a noir story boiled down in a Bunsen Burner until only the necessary words and images came up. Steve Finbow found the essence of noir, its economy of style. I never realized how reliant on vocabulary a genre could be before reading this brilliant little piece. Sometimes using three or four words, Finbow creates the bleak and gloomy atmospheres others can't replicate in complete paragraph or even a complete page. It's uncanny. The potency of NOTHING MATTERS lies in choices of words and sentences. Sometimes it's the word itself, sometimes its the juxtaposition. I read one third of Finbow's poem before going to bed and ended up dreaming about it. A first for me, for a book.
whisper into Z's ear,
"i have always loved you"
Z looking back at me,
hair hanging down, laughing, saying,
"you always will"
Poetry is (and always was) a closed circle. I can name you Tomas Transtromer and Mahmoud Darwish, but I can't tell you if they're the biggest names in the field or tell you the titles of their poem collections. I doubt NOTHING MATTERS will hit mainstream. The poem is transcribed as a novella at the end of the book, but I just hovered over it, as it wasn't the way it was meant to be read. Maybe it will turn people into it, but I doubt it will turn many. NOTHING MATTERS is destined to adventurous souls who are bored with the state of noir and bored with their own writings. Finbow breaks through the boundaries of the genre and makes me wish he would tackle more genres with his spare, essential poetry. I'll have to add Steve Finbow to the list of poets I know and add him at the very top.
FOUR STARS