Synopses & Reviews
Review
“Duhamel’s blunt, occasionally playful voice is versatile . . . Although long lines and expository prose blocks dominate this collection, the poet’s lyricism emerges in moments when she employs traditional form in surprising ways. Duhamel . . . has written some of the first poetry to deeply register the current economic crisis.”
—Publishers Weekly
Review
“Reliably sharp and entertaining. Duhamel’s knack for blending tones—especially the personal and sociological, the ludicrous and the horrifying, the silly and the pathetic—gives poem after poem its distinctive and unforgettable character.”
—ALA Booklist, starred review
Review
“Duhamel’s blunt, occasionally playful voice is versatile . . . Although long lines and expository prose blocks dominate this collection, the poet’s lyricism emerges in moments when she employs traditional form in surprising ways. Duhamel . . . has written some of the first poetry to deeply register the current economic crisis.”
—Publishers Weekly“With wry intelligence and wit, Duhamel's Ka-Ching! explores the mysteries of luck and accident in the welter of pop culture and private struggle. From a child's monopoly money to the harsh realities of aging parents recovering from a horrifying accident, her colloquial ease belies the poignancy of human predicament, celebrates the resilience of imagination, and leaves us with poems in which we recognize anew the wealth of our language, our lucky hearts.”
—Beckian Fritz Goldberg “Reliably sharp and entertaining. Duhamel’s knack for blending tones—especially the personal and sociological, the ludicrous and the horrifying, the silly and the pathetic—gives poem after poem its distinctive and unforgettable character.”
—ALA Booklist, starred review
Review
“This is the wildest, most honest book of poetry written in a long time. The various forms Duhamel uses prove that her imagination is keen and totally unpredictable. Dominated by prose poems, the book ranges across every contemporary worry, obsession, and conflict possible. The result is a voice that brings solutions to the challenges of everyday life while investigating how language rebuilds hope in a troubled and chaotic time.”
—The Bloomsbury Review
Review
“Duhamel is a wily technician, a touching humanist, a poet deserving stardom.”
—Entertainment Weekly
Synopsis
Ka-Ching! is a book of poems that explores America’s obsession with money. It also includes a crown of sonnets about e-bay, sestinas on the subjects of Sean Penn and the main characters of fairytales, a pantoum that riffs on a childhood riddle, and a villanelle inspired by bathroom grafitti.
About the Author
Denise Duhamel is associate professor of English at Florida International University. She is the author of ten poetry collections, including Two and Two and Queen for a Day: Selected and New Poems. Duhamel has also written five chapbooks of poetry and coedited, with Maureen Seaton and David Trinidad, Saints of Hysteria: A Half-Century of Collaborative American Poetry. The recipient of numerous awards, including a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, she has been anthologized widely, appearing in six volumes of The Best American Poetry.