Sand Opera
by Philip Metres
(Alice James Books, $16.95)
The most talked about movie of last year, American Sniper, thrust the effects of the Iraq War into the spotlight. Similar emotional, political and cultural terrain is traversed in Philip Metres' new poetry collection, Sand Opera, but from a vastly different perspective.
"On some level I feel my book is really an anti-American Sniper," says the poet and English professor at John Carroll University. "[In the film,] almost all of the Iraqis depicted are bombers, terrorists. I wanted my book to consider the humanity of all the participants in the war, both the Iraqis and the soldiers."
Writing Sand Opera was Metres' response to reading the haunting Amnesty International testimony about the human rights abuses of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. "The topic chose me," says Metres, himself an Arab-American.
The most effective technique Metres employs in conveying the prisoners' nightmare is his use of redacted texts, which mirror censored detainee testimonies. The gaps spur the reader to fill in, freeing the imagination to construct interpretations even darker and more damning than anything in the original language.
The result is a remarkable book, a troubling and absolutely necessary testament to the terrible cost of war.
Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen
by Mary Norris
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God Help the Child
by Toni Morrison
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God is Always Hiring: 50 Lessons for Finding Fulfilling Work
by Regina Brett
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