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The Pedestal Magazine -</i>Alan Catlin's <i>The Schenectady Chainsaw Massacre</i>...reviewed by Charles P. Ries
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Alan Catlin's The Schenectady Chainsaw Massacre...reviewed by Charles P. Ries |
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The Schenectady Chainsaw Massacre
Alan Catlin
Staplegun Press
www.staplegunpress.com
Reviewer: Charles P. Ries
Alan Catlin is a very talented and prolific writer. He penned the one hundred and twenty-six poems that comprise The Schenectady Chainsaw Massacre in just over two years-- that’s an average of five poems per month for twenty-four months straight. Since 1984 he has published sixty books of poetry. And if that doesn’t leave you gasping for air and raising the white flag, over that same period of time his work has appeared in over five hundred separate electronic and print publications. And it doesn’t end there: he has also garnered fifteen Pushcart nominations. Without even addressing issues of writing quality, one must sit back and marvel at Catlin’s persistence, productivity, and passion. He is a man who was born to write.
Catlin is an astute, tireless observer with a remarkably developed technique. Like all poets, he draws his source material from his immediate environment and filters it through his person, as is evidenced in “Sober":
"I gave up
drinking for
two weeks"
he said
“I just lost my
son-22 years
old-
he hung
himself"
I wasn’t sure
how that related
to his being
sober a whole
two weeks
other than
looking at him
the way he was
now for 22 years
was what made
that boy
die
And again in “One for the Road, for Bill Bradt":
You wanted someone
to slip a
Michelob into your
open coffin
for the long
journey to who
knew where-
it was sure
to be a hot
and thirsty place-
a dry road if you went
the way your
last two wives
had predicted-
I chickened
out at the last
minute-gave the beer
to the bartender
you’d spent the most
time with over
the years as I left
I never asked him
if he gave it to you
or not
Readers not familiar with Catlin’s work may find it interesting and relevant to learn he works as a bartender and draws significant material from the theater he observes and participates in during his day job-- alcohol provides an endless pool for a poet’s musings.
In the 2001 interview with Catlin featured in Peter Magliocco’s ART:MAG 24 (POB 70896; Las Vegas, NV 89170), Catlin says, “It’s my job to see things and tell people what I see in the manner most appropriate to the subject. The tone is mostly matter of fact, sometimes bitter, sometimes ironic, sometimes outright nasty, but easily discernable and readily identifiable as a Voice." Later in the same interview, Catlin explains a bit about his process: “I almost always write my poems out in longhand so I will be forced to rewrite for accuracy and precision later on. I rarely make major revisions. The initial draft of a poem is almost wholly formed before it is written."
Schenectady Chainsaw Massacre is presented in four sections. These establish a gentle progressive narrative cycle: "Poster People for the Village of the Damned," "Taxi Drivers of the Apocalypse," and "Dress Rehearsal for the Village of the Damned." Section Four, "Bartending the Merchants of Death," focuses on the sights, sounds and characters Catlin views from behind his bar while serving jive juice to the masses. An example is “Whatever He Man":
school he flunked
out of had a strange
definition for what
exactly went into
becoming the ultimate
Macho Stud he so
obviously wished he
could be-ordered an
extra-dry Vodka
Martini Up with extra
olives he would slug
down in two gulps
further impressing
the regulars by slamming
his glass on the bar
& saying, "Now I’m
ready to teach!"
A chorus of "Dude!"
following him out
the door was obviously
meant for someone else
There are even a few poems written in the voice of Ray Catina, a Vietnam veteran that Catlin created in the early 1980s. Here is one titled “Coming Home 1968":
No one had to ask,
“Where have you been?"
nights he broke free
from the compound/house,
parents secured, that is locked
in their bedroom, all lines
of communication severed,
illegal weapon set on lock
and load as he readied himself
for a solitary patrol dressed in
full camo and black face paint
using light of a quarter moon
to lead the way down Garfield
Place to the jungle on Ocean
Ave where Charlie was dug in,
sleeping, just four blocks
from home and half a world,
half a lifetime away.
Again, from the ART:MAG 24 interview: “Ray Catina came about fairly simply. I was frustrated with writing swaths, reams actually, of bar poems during one long summer between jobs. I was desperately trying to find something else to do with myself besides sling drinks and consume gallons of white wine, writing about people in bars from the point-of-view of an increasingly jaded barman. I must have spent a small fortune I didn’t have, on brown envelopes and postage, sending them out to every literary magazine on the face of the earth, to uniform disinterest and outright hostility." Catlin goes on to say, “So, I decided, rather cynically, but consciously, to take all those poems about bars and set them somewhere else and change the details to fit the new environment. Voila-- one cynical, anti-authoritarian, disenfranchised Vietnam vet." With this newly created narrator, Catlin saw his acceptance rate catapult.
If you have never purchased one of Alan Catlin's books, I strongly suggest you buy The Schenectady Chainsaw Massacre and add it to your library. It’s full, it’s loaded, and it’s a joyride down and through the odd alleys, darkened taverns, and magical synapses of a master writer.
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