Channeling Humbert Humbert

by Aaron Bradford. Bender Books, Long Beach Downtown Station, PO Box 21261, Long Beach Station, Ca. 90801.

Book Review by Michael Basinski

Jeff Epley is the editor and maker of Bender books and he art changing the notion of the chapbook by making it now, not a pathologically hastily constructed transition work to a larger collection, but an event, a form of Great Gatsby party by the pool and an adventure in astronomy that records the place of stars in the sky. Ands he makes only important books. Aaron Bradford’s book is one of them. Humbert Humbert by the way, for those of you who have not re-read Nabokov’s “Lolita” of late, is the main, male character of the novel. Bradford remains true to the lust, love and passions that this book might conjure but that seems only a postion from which to launch because this book of poems is a senusal love letter from men to women. I would give it (in) as cupid’s arrow. Each poem is an erotic kiss. The reinvention, reengagement of love and lust, in poetry is an ancient endeavor and often times the paths are dull and most poets just roll over and turnout the light. Bradford does not. He gets up and writes poetry and I am glad he did. Good to know that his muse is Cupid, cupid with blue balls and a few drinks, with his tongue, his heart.