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Review of The Radiance of Pigs by Stan Rice
"Yes, it is surreal," insists poet Stan Rice,
describing the passage of time on the opening page of The Radiance
of Pigs, his sixth book of poetry. By turns compelling, grotesque,
and poignant, Rice chronicles the tripartite structure of his
life (Childhood, Hades, and Resurrection) in nightmarishly unforgettable
imagery: "blood-splashed" butter or snowmen made of
"crystal vomit."
Rice perceives a world of terrifying beauty where sex becomes
a "black pig in a peach and spring arrives when "silver
lipstick is / On the Japanese plum." In this re-figured world,
Latin is spoken in pickup trucks, a venue where Rice finds himself
"meeting Satan in the parking lot."
The key characters in this poetical autobiography are the poet's
famous wife, Anne, and his dead father (the subjectof bizarre
and oddly moving elegies, "Don't Put Him In the Freezer"
and "Dad is Dead"). Reader will read--and reread--these
poems because of their strange beauty and uncompromising honesty:
"The experience isn't the vision. / Writing about it is the
vision." Highly recommended for all poetry collections.
--Dan Guillory, Library Journal, May 1999
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