Pearl

Lynn Szabo is an assistant professor of English at Trinity Western
University in Langley, B.C.

This collection of 24 free-verse narratives presents readers with
experiences from what might be called “the dark side of the moon.”
Mutilation in the name of love, pain as attraction, death as “the
greatest high of all”—such is the stuff upon which the pervasive
self-destruction feeds itself. Yet, while the writings are
contextualized in isolation, despair, loathing, insignificance, and
violence, the raw vulnerability of human sensuality powerfully subverts
the darkness at its most potent, creating connections between all who
participate in its horrors.

Crosbie’s choice of titles is incisive and clever. The poetic
structures follow into discourse that illustrates her experimentation
with lineation and syntactical structures. She is especially effective
in her use of color and tactile contrasts.

The book is propelled by an “archeology of decadence,” with its
knives, needles, drugs, murder, suicide, and crazed love. As the front
jacket cautions, “Experiencing Pearl is to give yourself over to
Crosbie’s world, at the risk of not returning.”