Product Description

After one small printing from Incommunicado Press that quickly blasted out of stock and out of print, Akashic is proud to bring back this disturbing and evocative collection of new work and selected poems previously featured in Blackman's popular chapbooks Pretty, Sweet, and Nice. It is futile to resist these brutal accounts of obsession and beauty. So give in.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #454918 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Review
". . . such a rascally joy to read. Sassy. Direct. Contemporary. Often merciless -- impressive throughout. Bravo!" -- Gwendolyn Brooks, poet

"Alt-rock diva, wise-cracking Blackman is not so much the poetic conscience of Gen X as its caustic avenger." -- The Village Voice

"Blackman has a gift for turning nightmares into revelations." -- The New York Times

"She's the spoken word goddess." -- SonicNet

About the Author
Blackman's work has appeared in five major anthologies including Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, Verses that Hurt, and Poetry Nation. She has performed on over fifteen albums, including recordings by Golden Palominos, KMFDM, Recoil, Bill Laswell, and Scanner. She has also performed on NPR, MTV Radio, and Spin Radio. She live in New York.

Customer Reviews

I'm all for not taking oneself too seriously, but...
have you seen the reviews for this book? I don't want to let the Amazon crowd down, but I like Blackman's work, so I think I'll skip the opportunity for an ironic review (i.e., the "Her poetry is so cute and fluffy!" write-up) or the huckster shot about diabetes, and just tell you I liked the book.

Nicole Blackman entered my world as a voice on a mix tape... I rewound "Dogma" over and over again. She is the only reason I own a KMFDM album; the band must have gotten tired of using their own name as lyrics, and hired a poet. The song is a hard kick in the teeth.

It took some searching to find out who the voice on that song belonged to, a little more to find out who Nicole Blackman was, and an order to buy the Golden Palominos CD that showcases her. There's that voice again, and it can purr and ice and seduce as well as seethe.

When I read this book, I hear that voice. I don't know if I'd have been so drawn to her if I had been handed a book instead of a tape, but I can easily settle into Blood Sugar and the range it offers.

Yes: "Range." Blood on the cover doesn't necessarily mean that the book is filled melancholy cliches-- it isn't readily apparent from reading the book weather or not she's a big Cure fan. Though she never traipses around in Hallmark fluff, some of the poems are very soft. The more violent graphic pieces detail something deeper (and scarier) than the sophomoric "anger and pain as an attention getter" poetry that I know she won't sink to.

And that's really the trick, isn't it? To pull off that piece of magic... she strikes up an empathy, somehow. Nicole Blackman can burn into a dark topic and stay human. She's not trite, not shallow, and not delivering us the image-obsessed chant with every poem: "I am the darkest poet alive". She is simply... good.

Very, very good.

Intense and Emotive
In the vein of Nicole Blackman's work, I want to keep this review concise and direct. With "Blood Sugar", Ms. Blackman touches the rarest of nerves with the adroit eye of a poet and clean candor of a seasoned observer of life. I'm certain that many of the poems contained in this book were not emotionally easy to write, and I feel very lucky that Ms. Blackman chose to share her wholly powerful work with us. I truly believe that "Blood Sugar" augments her as one of the most original and forthright poets of our time.

Pulpy
After enjoying Nicole Blackman's work with Golden Palominos, I was disappointed by this collection. Without her sexy voice to distract you from what she's actually saying, the flaws of Nicole's writing are brought to the fore, and she doesn't have much of a leg to stand on. Be advised that Blackman is definitely not literary, and her use of language is quite unsophisticated (I couldn't shake the thought that my 17-year-old friend produces better, quirkier work than this.) Blackman milks well-worn scenarios (abduction by a crazed man, getting abused by men as a rites of passage, Anorexia etc) but she adds nothing to the dialogue about these subjects. She represents the female experience accurately enough, and I did find myself relating to much of the terrain she explores, such as in her poem 'Dark Daughter' (about a depressed girl whose mother misunderstands her), but she just doesn't have an original take on this stuff. Also, her motifs (stars, pearls, diamonds, blood, guns etc), seem to me merely decorative; surface.

Nicole Blackman seems to want to be the spokesperson for the urban underworld -- and she succeeds. Pop culture references abound, and the physical world is prioritised. Most of these poems don't resonate, and are at times heavy-handed. They tackle huge subjects like rape, incest, the loss of a twin, etc, and while very punchy and high-impact, they ultimately remind the reader of a slew of bad television crime shows, and various other low-brow gothic media. The nuances of Nicole's work are lost when limited to the written word, which is a shame, because pieces like 'Thirst' and 'Drown' work well when backgrounded by surreal music.

I believe that Nicole Blackman's craft is editing -- and it shows. This stuff is pared down, stark, and as bloody as the cover would indicate. Maybe it's just not my thing. I'd recommend this to a teenage girl, but if you're older than that, you may require something more layered.