From Publishers Weekly James Tate meets James Merrill as technical competence， wry digs and surreal image-play triumph over self-questioning and actual engagement in Bradley's fourth collection. Bradley (The Fire Fetched Down) won the Yale Younger Poets award in 1985， went on to edit the series' 1998 anthology， and is here backed by a blurb from Yale don Harold Bloom that invokes the above JM (as well as the ever-invoked JA John Ashbery). Bradley does have formal and imagistic chops， much in evidence in the book's second poem， "Autochthons Are Standing By": "If their eyes grown wide as orbs of herbivores/ Searched for his freak flamboyance， dread device... / Whinging pup， pubescent klutz， no nubile maid/ Ablush with tenderness and embarrassment of thought..." But thought does indeed seem an embarrassment to be consciously skirted throughout. The sonnet sequence "A Year in New England" veers into Billy Collins's signature pseudo-schmaltz， "Over a new world asked to readjust/ Snow comes down as miraculous as dust." The long sendup "How I Got in the Business" comically juxtaposes mob-backed olive oil sales with poetic self-presentation， without quite managing to dis the hallowed bildung trinity of Cambridge， Mass.'s Grolier Poetry Book Shop， the New Yorker and the 92nd Street Y. The mid-career nostalgic satire continues in "A Poet in the Kitchen，" which riffs on being young and not-very affluent in the big city ("New York City was flat broke./ I， too， was broke， the flat was free"). The speaker finds himself in a storage space for a burgeoning art gallery， where "truth be told， it was hard to tell/ where art might end and garbage start." Readers will have some of the same trouble here. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information， Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Library Journal "Many things happen in Chester， Connecticut，/ but the invasion of Tamerlain is not one of them." Still， the great warrior insinuates himself into the poet's thoughts on a snowy day when he's feeling down， overlooked， and unnoticed in the grand scheme of things， taking comfort in knowing that Tamerlain still rides on. Bradley， a Yale Younger Poet in 1985， is not unsettled by the absurdity of it all but encouraged and energized. He reveals some false starts of the Creator in "Experiments in Creation Science" and reconsiders plans for the "new" Ark: "Cockroaches， of course， the professionals，/ As well as most varieties of lice，/ And indeed insects of every description." The anchor of the collection， though， is a long but wonderfully smart and funny poem entitled "How I Got in the Business" that is itself worth the price of admission: "your uncle， let's say， is a prominent/ mafia boss who neglected to get his degree/ and so buys your way into Harvard，/ where it will be your privilege to see/ the best minds of a generation/ sitting in traffic on Memorial Drive." A chance glance through a bookshop window， and he finds "there's no accounting where POETRY's taste is concerned" and is seduced into the game or so he tells us in the 686th line. Bradley's satirical knives flash loud and quick. Recommended. Louis McKee， Painted Bride Arts Ctr.， Philadelphia Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information， Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. See all Editorial Reviews