Noose and Hook

With its exotic quirkiness, ceaseless self-interrogation, and 'insatiable identities' that shape-shift from one page to the next, 'Noose and Hook' digs a trench and empties its clip at our hallowed notions of voice and linearity, and serves as a testament to the depth of Emanuel's vibrant, indeed subversive, imagination. . . .It is difficult to think of another contemporary American poet, apart from Mary Ruefle, with such an unwavering commitment to her own singular vision and inventiveness.

As scarily sobering as it is wickedly funny.

Looping with zany energy and troubling all the way through. This is difficult work, more buffeting that consoling, but remember as you read that Polish poet Zbigniew Herbert said the purpose of art is to say, 'Wake up!'

An accessible book that is wry, subversive, poignant, and at times, even a little bit scary. Best of all, when read and enjoyed cover to cover, the collection has the narrative scope of a lyric novel.

Mayhem and murder in luscious language.

The voyage Emanuel takes her reader on in 'Noose and Hook' is mountainous; we are taught by the end to welcome the wild and abstract in the context of modernity.

In 'Noose and Hook,' we find a speaker delightfully at odds with how to write from 'personal experience' in an age of perpetual war and distraction. . . . The task of this poet is to break most of poetry's rules, yet still she assembles some of the most haunting images I've come across in a long time without veering into what we might call 'experimental' territory. . . . For if we never embrace life's more disturbing sides, this poet is here to lead us into her underworld, to show us those shades, to remind us, if we don't look at our darkness head-on, we risk being consumed, 'replaced by it.' A frightening, essential book.

The tremendous power of Emanuel's experiment has to do with her immersion in such dialectical twists as presented by the slipperiness of her artisitic medium itself: speech. The whole structure of the book enacts a drama of escape and entrapment as the the lyric "I" disappears and resurfaces. . . . Emanuel offers not only a powerfully and passionately written collection but also a vital contribution to the development of contemporary poetry.

Emanuel's elegant, wry verse tackles a multitude of subjects—place, wars, painting, teaching, and dogs. Her language is precise, innovative, and witty, yet still has heart and a playful quality to it.