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The Konkans
The Monsters of Templeton
All Shall Be Well; and All Shall Be Well; and All Manner of Things Shall Be Well
Life Class
Sharp Teeth
My Revolutions
Gas City
Atomic Lobster
Hunter's Run
Lady of the Snakes
Go With Me
The Assist
My Life as a Traitor
Elizabeth & Leicester
Vermeer's Hat
In Defense of Food
The Gift
A War of Gifts
Person of Interest
Darkmans
The Living
T Is For Trespass
Entering Hades
Twenty Thousand Roads
American Creation
Dead Street
A Free Life
Born Standing Up
A Land So Strange
Why the Devil Chose New England for His Work
Elegy
How to be Perfect
The Pure in Heart
Service Included
The Year of Eating Dangerously
Someone Knows My Name

Book Review

How to be Perfect

Ron Padgett

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Credits

Writer: Ron Padgett; Genres: Fiction, Poetry; Publisher: Coffee House Press

A-

By Ken Tucker

Ken Tucker

Ken Tucker is critic-at-large for EW

Ron Padgett's deceptively light poems muse on everyday items (English muffins; a toothbrush), exploring our desires and insecurities in How to be Perfect.

Sample Verse
''Hello, America. It is dawn / wake up and smell yourselves / You smell normal.''

Bottom Line
A few rare long poems on major themes (war; how to be perfect) demonstrate Padgett's ambition.

Posted Nov 09, 2007

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