On the Eighth Day Adam Slept Alone

Nancy Boutilier

Nancy Boutilier's second collection of poetry, like its older sister a Lambda Literary Award finalist, is good but inconsistent. This is, of course, the case with the majority of poetry books, and thus is certainly no reason not to pick it up; you're not wading through much swine at all to get to the pearls.

Divided into ten sections, On the Eighth Day Adam Slept Alone is sometimes surprising, sometimes predictable, sometimes sweet, sometimes sarcastic, and usually technically sound. There are some times when she wanders off into vagueness, but in a single-author collection of over 200 pages, that's to be expected.

Worth picking up if you run across it in the used bookstore.