Review of Careen by Carolyn Smart

This is a book of poetry. Although I am not a big fan of poetry I enjoyed it because the poems follow each other chronologically to tell a story with a beginning, middle and end. The author uses the voices of different people to tell the story of Bonnie and Clyde. In an interview I heard, she explained how she wanted to show a more realistic picture of them than the glamorous gangsters that have been portrayed in the past especially their poverty and youth. Sometimes it was hard to identify the speaker in a poem, but the tone of the poems gave a good feeling for the desperation of the people involved and how events can snowball. Like today, media can have a large effect on the perception of events.

This book would appeal to people interested in the story of Bonnie and Clyde who would like a different perspective. It is also a good example of how different writing styles can be used to tell a story. Someone interested in writing could learn a lot from these poems about how sparse words can portray characters and events.

Reviewed by Mary Peet