Victory Boulevard

by Michele Herman

Overview

This collection could be called The Lives of Girls and Women if Alice Munro hadn't already taken the title. In funny, lyrical, poignant poems and prose poems, Herman conjures everyone from lonely teenage girls listening to records in their bedrooms to her own Depression-era seamstress mother to Betty Boop to the oldest daughter of the old woman who lives in a shoe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635344233
Publisher:	Finishing Line Press
Publication date:	02/16/2018
Series:	New Women's Voices Series , #136
Pages:	46
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.11(d)

About the Author

Michele Herman's poems, stories, essays and articles have been widely published in literary journals, newspapers and magazines. A recipient of several writing awards, she teaches at The Writers Studio, works as a developmental editor and writing coach, writes columns for The Villager, translates French songs, and performs her own work in cabaret and theatrical settings. She is the mother of two grown sons and lives with her husband in Greenwich Village.

Table of Contents

I.

In the World I Was Born Into 1

In Praise of Vinyl 3

The Girl in the Driveway 5

“Pickup on South Street”: Thelma Ritter Steals the Show 7

In the Pale Green Sewing Room 10

Best Dressed Girl 12

Depression Baby 13

Victory Boulevard 14

II.

What to Expect 16

Tell Me, Good Fairy 19

Car Dream 23

The Oldest Child’s Lament 25

Girl Dies of Embarrassment 27

To My Latvian Great Grandmother 28

My Mother’s Word 31

Betty Boop Retires 32

Editorial Reviews

Her mother’s word, Michele Herman tells us in one of these strong, moving poems, was ‘lovely,’ a fitting adjective to describe the book as a whole. With warmth of heart, generosity of spirit, and keen observation of family and a receding past, the loveliness prevails, as endearing as it is evocative of a hot June night on Victory Boulevard, where time stands still and “last year’s dances are a glossy memory.”

—Philip Schultz, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Failure

The poems in Victory Boulevard don’t ache for the missed moments of life or try to excuse the past, but embrace the way shown. There’s a clarity to this collection that comes from a keen observation and reflection of the world. From childhood to motherhood, from the bedtime story to the embarrassments which could belong to any of us, these poems are both familiar and full of surprise.

—Dorianne Laux, author of The Book of Men

From the Publisher