Citizen J
Daniela
Olszewska. Artifice Books, $14.95 paperback (100p) ISBN: 978-0988480490
I’ve
spent almost two months ruminating on Citizen
J. In many ways Citizen J should
be easy to write about, the book, in which all the poems are about the central
character J, is generally plot driven, and stays for the most part in the
material realm (there’s a distinct absence of rhetoric and interiority). But my
simple conclusions never stuck; Citizen J
is dazzlingly complex under the hood of simple formula.
Daniela Olszewska
has carved out a pleasant niche for herself and Citizen J, extremely similar to her equally wonderful chapbook True Confessions of an Escape from The
Capra Facility (Spittoon Press, 2013)
continues to develop the themes of identity, gender, and isolation. Her subject
matter is historical and folk-ish. Many of the sections sound like tall tales, specifically
Citizen J’s 12 husbands and 12 wives
sections. There is a certain Tom Robbin’s quality—equal portions humor and
heartfelt.
The
complexity arises in how gracefully Olszewska mends plot with character and the
immense amount of work she does to destabilize traditional structural elements.
Similar to Joshua Young’s play in verse When
The Wolves Quit (Gold Wake Press, 2012)
there’s something very interesting about conveying ‘solid elements’ such as
well defined characters and narrative in ‘loose’ fragmented structure. Unsurprisingly,
J herself holds the book together. She is the center of each poem, but instead
of a firm character what we are left with is more like a black hole. We see J
through her effect on others. Her supporting cast is full of strangers,
pirates, schoolgirls and the overall effect is that the character J is
interesting if not magnetically attractive.
The book’s
poems are separated into several styles ranging from flash fiction-y pieces in
the husbands/wives section, to concise and evocative especially in the later
section. The first and last sections have a text message like quality to them
due to their abbreviation, inclusion of plus symbols and disjointed speech. The
last section was the most dynamic as certain Citizen Kane like elements were
introduced. The previous small scale J is pulled into the larger political
world. Olszewska becomes increasing experimental and brief. Instead of jarring, the effect of such a tonal
change makes the last section pleasantly surreal. J’s fame is modeled by an
increasingly distant J. We barely see her, she has drifted away. (September
2013)
Purchase
Citizen J HERE.
Reviewer
bio: Wyatt Sparks lives in Chicago. He has two ebooks out, As We All
Change (Love Symbol Press, 2013) and Second Man On The Moon (Nap,
2013).
