refrain

refrain recounts the authors travels in India as an inexperienced and sensitive young man. The narrative shows wit intelligence and a facility with words. The style is experimental and literary; and the fascination of the stories told – short stories in verse presenting the anxieties and misfortunes typical of shoestring traveling and the culture-shock deriving from visiting a very different culture from ones own – carries the careful reader along. A knack for reading this less-than-conventional fast-paced book which is at once humorous and nightmarish passionate and detached is acquired quickly.A young man arrives in Delhi with a romanticized view of India a pocketful of outdated maps and a money belt begging to be stolen. ... Polley takes us along on a ride that feels cinematic jammed with sensory explosions that rock the sensibilities.The reader is pulled into the text to experience the chaotic disordered images of India. The stories work as a sprawling dramatic monologue one that encompasses numerous states and territories. Polley paints on a large canvas and his brush strokes are fresh memorable and cutting edge.— Kirby Wright Honolulu Hawai Author of Punahou Blues and Molokai Nui AhinaPolley’s verse betrays the eyes of a true traveler for whom all experience seems new and full of wonder.--  Review by Zachary Abram in The Bull Calf June 2012.