Book Review: Kinky Keeps the House Clean

Kinky Keeps the House Clean
    
       by Mari Deweese









Review by Julie Carpenter

Mari Deweese’s Kinky Keeps the House Clean can be found at the intersection of domesticity and eroticism, the sacred crossroads of American womanhood.  There’s more dirt than you might think in Kinky’s house and it’s worth your time to help her uncover it.
 
The poet understands that poetry should be spare and focused, but unlike many other poets she understands when intricacy and adornment are called for.  She can be blunt and relentless but she's not afraid of beauty.

The poetry in this collection is by turns hilarious and illuminating, dark and beautiful, subversive and honest.  In fact, Deweese can pack all of those things in a single poem.  In spite of the seeming simplicity, every poem in this collection reveals depths of complexity.

Reading Deweese’s work is like staying in the house of a very good friend.  It’s obviously her own, but there’s plenty of room to bring your own thoughts.  I sincerely hope to see much more of Deweese’s poetry in the future.

---

Mary Deweese lives outside of Memphis and dreams of a place with an actual autumn.  When she is not busy with that and other similarly useless pursuits, she is probably writing, thinking about writing, or cleaning the kitchen.

---