It really comes down to your opinion of the title piece. If you think it's great, the other poems won't matter. But if you don't like it, the other poems won't make up for it.

Of the 124 pages, 30 are "Kaddish' and another 30 are the two essays about it. "Laughing Gas" checks in at 17 pages. The other 47 pages are comprised of 14 shorter poems. Both essays are new to the 50th anniversary edition. Or were new when it was first published. Bill Morgan sheds light on Naomi's life before moving on to the poem itself.

"Kaddish" is a depressing piece. Gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, etc. AG does a good job of depicting his mother's paranoia. His approach is as blunt / bold as it was in "Howl".

"To Lindsay" is the 'other' piece that stood out to me. It's an efficient ten lines.

Anyway, here are some lines that popped out at me:

Franco has murdered Lorca the fairy son of Whitman / just as Mayakovsky committed suicide to avoid Russia - "Death to Van Gogh's Ear!"

Somebody will invent / a Buchenwald next door - "Laughing Gas"

I'm a spy / in Bloomfield on a park bench / - frightened by buses - - "Laughing Gas"

This, from "How Kaddish Happened":

In the country getting up with the cows and birds hath Blakean charm, in the megalopolis the same nature's hour is a science-fiction hell vision, even if you're a milkman. Phantom factories, unpopulated streets out of Poe, familiar nightclubs bookstores groceries dead.

I'll leave you with this:

I write best when I cry. - Ginsberg

Although not a great book, this was a fun read. Pirates, rogueish space captians and shady corporations all make for a great afternoon of reading.

This is a young adult novel I was granted access to by Netgalley – my thanks.

It's a classic idea: a much-bullied 12-year-old boy is whisked off from his down-trodden life to another world, where he can become a hero. Greg Hart is just that boy – and Myrrth is just that other world. He abruptly finds himself in the middle of a ring of wizards who have gone searching for him through the worlds. Well – searching for the mighty Greghart, prophesied to slay the dragon who will take the princess. Greg protests futilely that he would have trouble slaying a dragonfly, much less a dragon ("He'd be lucky to win a fight against one of the smaller girls at school") – particularly when he realizes there's a local bonafide dragonslayer called Greatheart – but no one listens: they are certain that the prophecy clearly points to him, and prophecies guide everyone's lives on Myrrth, and therefore a-slaying he will go.

Really funny world building with puns, word-play and prophesies. There still seemed to be a few things missing, or places where the writing kind of threw me off (for example, when the dragon takes Greg in his mouth, then discards him in the cell, it wasn't clear why the dragon would drop them off like that then leave - there were a few instances of things like this where the writing could have been stronger), but on the whole it was clever and witty.

I don’t mind when stories have similar story lines as long as each story is new and interesting. Unfortunately How To Slay A Dragon‘s story was a bit boring. It’s a pretty typical set up: our protagonist is ripped from his normal life and thrown into a new world. In this new world, he’s the one who has to save the world even though he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Surprise! He learns a lot in this new world and is the hero everyone thought he would be.I don’t mean to say the story is bad because it’s not. It just wasn’t as interesting as it could have been for me. The characters were interesting enough. I thought they were a bit funny. They kind of reminded me of characters from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books. Actually now that I think of it, the whole book was a bit reminiscent of Discworld’s universe and humor but for a younger crowd.The book did a good job of exploring the idea of prophecies and luck. In fantasy books, prophecies are a big thing. People plan out their actions based on them. If a prophecy is wrong, it could shatter their existence because they don’t think prophecies can be wrong. Because of that people bend and twist prophecies into what they think they mean so they are fulfilled. The author explored luck in a very cool light that can be applied to everyday life. Imagine that someone is nearly crushed to death. Most people wouldn’t consider that to be lucky. If anything, we’d consider that bad luck but aren’t they lucky to still be alive? It’s definitely a glass half empty/half full type of thinking.The bottom line? Entertaining enough but not enough to make me continue the series.