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“The texts are playful and experimental, jarringly erratic in form, yet still masterfully stringent. . . . The Real Made Up has no respect for comfort zones. A wonderful work of harsh unrealities.”
Stephen Brockwell's The Real Made Up (ECW Press, 2007) wants to deceive you. Written by the adept hand behind Cometology (ECW Press, 2001) and Fruitfly Geographic (ECW Press, 2004), Brockwell has crafted poetry that will not tolerate your reliance on its honesty.
Coarse and untrusting, the poetry interwoven is not all that it seems. "The Real Made Up is itself made up of real and imaginary interviews with people off the street, of poems by others and poems from others," extolls the back cover copy. You may be dumbfounded to uncover this cruel abandon of coddling promises, especially after you engage characters found in "Karikura Digs" (p. 60), "Joanne's Vibrator" (p. 101) and "Mark Bradley's Truck" (p. 66), characters who have an uncommon depth of candor.
Brockwell has managed to construct fiction so detailed and goodly, you may catch yourself taking shelter in his world, be it sanctuary or trickery. Take, for example, "Bill McGillivray's Trophy Deer" (p. 23) - a cunning interview depicting the loss of a father, and the gaining of a disembodied elk.
The texts are playful and experimental, jarringly erratic in form, yet still masterfully stringent. "Four Electronic Handwriting Recognitions" lead this reviewer to believe that Brockwell had entered original poems into optical character recognition software, and allowed machine-made errors to linger in the final production. My own quizzical delight arose when I realized that I had built up my own illusion; Brockwell played my readerly instincts with a deep understanding of human nature.
The Real Made Up has no respect for comfort zones. A wonderful work of harsh unrealities.
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