Killing George Washington: The American West in Five Voices

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CAH, January 26, 2010 (view all comments by CAH)
As opposed to a straight dose of poetry, "Killing George Washington" is refreshingly broken up into five sections, each of which is preceded by a historical account of the real person who is featured in the following poems. The author chose five socially-maligned people from the Pacific Northwest's past and used their true stories as inspiration for her poems. The work is surprisingly thoughtful and moving, with a dark, anchoring undertone throughout (we are, after all, reading about such characters as an avid killer of Native Americans, Oregon's first murderess, and a slave on Lewis and Clark's famous expedition). Overall, this book is a beautifully written and historically fascinating read.

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CAH, January 26, 2010 (view all comments by CAH)
As opposed to a straight dose of poetry, "Killing George Washington" is refreshingly broken up into five sections, each of which is preceded by a historical account of the real person who is featured in the following poems. The author chose five socially-maligned people from the Pacific Northwest's past and used their true stories as inspiration for her poems. The work is surprisingly thoughtful and moving, with a dark, anchoring undertone throughout (we are, after all, reading about such characters as an avid killer of Native Americans, Oregon's first murderess, and a slave on Lewis and Clark's famous expedition). Overall, this book is a beautifully written and historically fascinating read.

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Netanis, October 16, 2009 (view all comments by Netanis)
I grew up in Oregon City, Oregon, end of the Oregon Trail. You know, the place where at the end of the computer game the music plays and all your points are added up. Yes, that town. I went all the way through the public school system and every year the field trip involved something related to the historical frontier, or a farm. One year we went to a farm.

This book was different from the traditional rhetoric of the 1800s as taught in class. These poems represent the marginalized voices of the American West from murderers to minorities to slaves. I am tired of the balding white guy perspective and loved the voice of Oregon’s first murderess who had a farm not far from where I grew up. I loved the humanization of real characters from history whose voices had, before now, been brushed off as a secondary to historical cannon.

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Product Details

ISBN:

9781932010305

Author:

Paris, Anne Jennings

Publisher:

Ooligan Press

Subject:

American - General

Subject:

Poetry-A to Z

Copyright:

2009

Publication Date:

20091031

Binding:

TRADE PAPER

Language:

English

Illustrations:

Y

Pages:

134

Dimensions:

8.70x5.30x.40 in. .51 lbs.