Igor Goldkind

Got this one for review and promptly lost it in the boxes as I prepared to move. I'm so sorry about the delay in review!

This is a beautifully printed volume of poetry and art that's not afraid to push you in weird ways. The two page spread of "when did crap become the new black?" made me laugh. "Daedalus, afraid to fly" made me sad, imagining lost possibilities for an author I'd never known. As usual for a volume of poetry, not all of it spoke to me, but that's fine. An unusual experience nonetheless.… (more)

Like some other ER reviewers out here, I liked, but didn't love, Is She Available? and for a few reasons. Some of the poetry just wasn't my bag (poetry seems to be the most personal genre out there), and I'm not a dude so some of the sexual stuff (there wasn't a ton) didn't do anything for me. What I liked the best was the various artwork throughout, and the way the format changed things up on nearly every page. It reminded me of "House of Leaves" by Mark Z. Danielweski and "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy" by Laurence Sterne. It also refers you to a website (is-she-available.com) with promises of extra artwork, profiles, photographs, poetry, and, most importantly, original music. As of today's date (January 2016) the only thing missing is the music. It's a nice book to flip through, and like most collected stories, not everything will hit the mark. I look forward to hearing the music whenever it appears online, though, and I'm glad that I got the chance to get a copy through the ER program.… (more)

I didn't completely love the poetry in this book, but the art really made it for me. It's a bit scattered and .. I guess you could call it esoteric (but that's probably a terrible word for it, I just can't think of a better way to describe it), but it's somehow also totally relate-able when you really take the time to investigate thoroughly the accompanying art. This also makes me a little sad to not get the multi-media experience. When I read the description of this book on the Early Reviewers list, I definitely expected to receive something else in addition to the book that had the multi-media bits on it. I don't know what, a CD/DVD/flash drive maybe? I wouldn't have missed that if I hadn't read that description though. This book is definitely gorgeous and a 'sharing' book. You'll want to have it sitting around, though I hate the term 'coffee table book' I think that's sort of where this fits. It's intriguing enough to pick up and browse through and also holds up for a deeper inspection.… (more)