Standing in the Pizzicato Rain by Georgina Eddison

WORLD LITERATURE IN REVIEW ^^^ ^^^^^^^H breaking legacies in Latin American poetry still remain at the forefront. One could also bemoan the absence of other poets in a volume of this nature (after all, an anthology will never please everyone). However, a more important concern worth noting about this ambitious work is that while some countries are rep resented by several authors (Peru, Venezuela, Mexico, Argentina, Chile), others are barely represented at all (Paraguay, Ecuador, El Salva dor, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Uruguay). Such dispar ity is troubling, especially with the inclusion of New Mexican writer Levi Romero, who would have been better served if Guerrero would have included other U.S.-Latino poets. These issues not withstanding, Cuerpo plural is a handy reference when considering the many paths undertaken by Latin American poets since the late twentieth century. Cesar Ferreira Ui 7 ivers it y of Wis cousin -M ihva11 kee Georgina Eddison. Standing in the Pizzicato Rain. Cliffs of Moher, County Clare, Ireland. Salmon (Dufour, distr.). 2010 (?2009). 40 pages. 10/$21.95. ISBN 978-1-907056-15-4 Georgina Eddison loves sounds? the eponymous pizzicato rain, clacking and clicking, tapping and ringing, melodies and curses, and casual conversations. Yet her real strength lies in images, which create sounds and meanings that are often reconsidered. The poems are quite brief and short-lined, which means that Eddison usually chooses one dominant image that is explored in the poem, often becoming a conceit, though without becoming porten tous or strained. Their brevity, how ever, is also their danger, because itmeans that each word must bear a good deal of weight. An imper fect choice, a slide into a slightly different idiom, or the unexpected extension of an image threaten the integrity of the poem. When we learn that a tailor, pre sumably the speaker's father, chalks a "daughter-shaped" outline on his drafting paper, the image is lugu briously thrilling yet unexplained. We are not sure where the daughter stands here; Larkin's advice?that a poem must get off the ground in its final lines?is worth consider ing (though thedominant influence here is Eavan Boland, a world away from Larkin). That said, the poems always launch themselves with vim and vigor outward. They are mostly family portraits, and this theme uni fies the volume but does not banish our uncertainty?we are not always sure ifwe are dealing with lovers or siblings, remembered or future events. The domesticity they pre sent, though, is lively and engaging. The poems are carefully crafted: stanzas are often self-enclosed, and their progress either turns an image on itshead (as in thegently comical "Redeeming Myth in Inchicore") or complicates it, as when the speaker's mother, gathering clothes hung out todry, is seen topluck the stringsof an instrument attuned to the pizzi cato rain; a countermelody is played after her rush indoors by the father, "gathering close / the music she has left behind." Such moments are the high points of thisvolume. They are lyrical yet not saccharine, and Eddi son knows how to cut them short before they run the risk of precios ity. There are comical moments, too, and sometimes tension, as w7hen the speaker foresees her mother's death as a sudden, explosive silence. The resulting poem ("Ending") is a feat of concision: its unraveling emotions are indirectly proportional to the quantity and weight ofwords used to elicit them. Standing in the Pizzica to Rain is an enjoyable volume, and hopefully we will hear more from Georgina Eddison in the future. Magdalena Kay University of Victoria, B.C. Robert Hass. The Apple Trees at Olema. New York. Ecco / HarperCol lins. 2010. xv + 352 pages. $34.99. isbn 978-0-06-192382-1 A "new and selected" is meant to feature the best previously pub lished poems of an author along with the newest work so that read ers can experience in one volume the concentrated (to date) success of a poet as well as the trajectoryof his or her development, not only in exploration of content but also in evolution or consistency of style. For the most part, this generous volume does exactly that, although (as is usually

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