Reviews for Bastards of the Reagan Era

by Reginald Dwayne Betts

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Betts, whose memoir, A Question of Freedom (2009), won the NAACP Image Award, begins his second poetry collection, a poetic evisceration of societal race norms, with a powerfully stirring love poem for his sons, Miles and Micah. His children's presence is on display early to foreshadow a world that takes shape according to the business of human tragedy and the need for us to become more fully human. The timing for this demanding, candid, resounding, and hopeful volume is perfect, as Betts takes the media to task for its failings, exposes manipulative politics, and turns criminal law upside down. With his own children always at the forefront of his critique, protest, and call for truth and justice, Betts uses heightened language and concentrated rhythms to look back over his own road from prison to writing, activism, and Yale Law School. An inspiring collection: Talk about them dudes on the roof / talking about the Library of Congress. / Talk about never owning a damn thing, / & then talk about us. --Eleveld, Mark Copyright 2015 Booklist


Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Poet and memoirist Betts's poetry explores his generation, the country he has inherited, and "the business of human tragedy" that is the criminal justice system. © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.


Library Journal
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Half the poems in this arresting, tough-minded collection from Beatrice Hawley Award winner Betts (Shahid Reads His Own Palm) are titled "For the City That Nearly Broke Me," and the elegiac tone extends to all black men in harsh America: "Many gone to grave: men awed/ by blood, lost in the black/ of all that is awful:/ think crack and aluminum." We think a lot about drugs and guns, street fights and prison and handcuffs as Betts recalls the "black cauldron" of the Eighties and his own burdened life. As he says in the title poem, "I graduated high school numb,/ Already caged with a dead man rattling 'bout my head," and the rattling is heard throughout. VERDICT An extraordinary portrait; read it and weep. © Copyright 2015. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.