Shelf Unbound October/November 2013 October 2013 | Page 66

small press reviews
Portrait of the Artist with a Red Car
by Nuala Ní Conchúir

T

Templar Poetry
www.templarpoetry.com

iny though it is, Nuala Ní Conchúir’s Portrait of the Artist
with a Red Car is dense with sensual imagery. Indeed, the
economy of language that Conchúir employs throughout this
volume is reminiscent of Ezra Pound’s “In a Station at the Metro.”
This parallel, moreover, does not appear to be accidental: In one of
the longer pieces of this collection, “Flaneuse,” Conchúir includes a
section titled “on the metro,” which, like Pound’s haiku-esque masterwork, presents the reader with the prospect of meeting strangers
in underground public spaces.
Yet while Conchúir may be a student of Pound’s spare yet
powerful language, she rejects the cold aloofness of the modern,
particularly with respect to the women she depicts. The women of
Conchúir’s poetry are sensual and alive—thriving, in fact, within the
medium of human imperfection and ambivalence. The pregnant
figures (and there are a few) of Conchuir’s poetry are filled with an
endearing mixture of hope and worry. They pray to Saint Gerard,
patron of motherhood. They dream of other people’s babies. They
are acutely aware of the lives growing inside of them—and perhaps
even more so of the dangers that lurk outside the womb.
Pregnancy and motherhood, however, are not the only themes of
Conchúir’s latest collection. Throughout the volume, she also examines love, sex, aging, and infidelity as she continues the complex,
moving exploration of the human soul that makes her work such a
joy to read.
—Marc Schuster, www.smallpressreviews.wordpress.com
Shelf Unbound Contributing Editor Marc Schuster is the author of
The Grievers, The Singular Exploits of Wonder Mom and Party Girl,
Don DeLillo, Jean Baudrillard, and the Consumer Conundrum, and,
with Tom Powers, The Greatest Show in the Galaxy: The Discerning
Fan’s Guide to Doctor Who. He is the editor of Small Press Reviews,
and his work has appeared in numerous magazines and journals.
Marc teaches writing and literature courses at Montgomery County
Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania.

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