Of extraordinary beauty and power, Toby Olson's new poems plumb the depths of "human nature," its dreams, desires, and mournful memories -- a woman dancing on a table in a bar, a mother who has lost her mind, two close friends talking to each other about dying. A moving tribute to parents, siblings, lovers, and friends -- the poet's own bold "face in the bandages of memory." In Olson's long-awaited return to poetry from his award-winning fiction (Seaview), this work is, once again, as timeless as human nature itself. It promises to resonate with poets and nonpoets alike, with what is profoundly human in all of us.

This book was delightfully intelligent.

Toby Olson's novel is complex, and its details may seem tedious to undisciplined readers. However, for those willing to give their full attention to Olson's prose, you will be rewarded fascinating insights, rich characters, good humor, and most important the golf scene, which is easily the greatest description of the game of golf in American literature, and rises to the highest levels of prose American writers have written. Yes, the scene's that good - but you'll have to work for it. Oh yes - the book takes a funny turn toward the end, so stick with it. Overall, quite wonderful.

Golf and native americans and returning home and moving east are the themes here a great novel that ends on Cape Cod after starting somewhere out west on a golf course...