Kirkus Review
The following is a review provided by Kirkus with the authors reply.
Kirkus Review
"Whimsical, melancholy, and death-laden songs make up this tuneful collection of poetry.
Much of Torgersen’s verse has a singsong quality, with strong meters and rhymes, repetitive choruses, and the use of dialect, especially West Indian patois. His subject matter and poetic moods, however, are often steeped in quizzical rumination and existential angst. A few pieces wander into overt philosophizing, including a colorful but dated prose essay that warns readers that “the long-legged wolf of consumerism runs unchecked as the lead dog in the world-wide Iditarod of capitalist oppression.” Some are songs that have been copyrighted by other authors, including the Paul Simon hit “Slip Slidin’ Away,” The Eagles’ “Hotel California,” Steve Goodman’s railroad ballad “City of New Orleans,” and Jimmy Cliff’s “The Harder They Come.” Torgersen reprints the lyrics of these and other copyrighted songs verbatim, without attribution. In an introduction, he contends that many of his early verses were “stolen” from him, but he offers no evidence of his authorship of any of the lyrics here that have been previously recorded and published by others. In dozens of what appear to be original poems, however, Torgersen’s verse abounds in cryptic lyricism. He often strikes a prophetic chord, admonishing readers in “A’ Them Gone,” for example, to “Hear me when I say / there is something here today, / and there can be no peace / ‘till it’s gone.”
Surreal scenes course through many poems. “Big Hill Revisited” begins with “The space suited florist’s man / is dumping dead daisies / out the back of a blue van / into an alley at dawn.” Goats are also a substantial presence in the collection: “The Wind and the Goats” speculates playfully that “Maybe it’s the way they smell, / so strong and, well, goatey, / that keeps the wind from trying / to ruffle their hair,” and “Look Homeward, Now” mentions “a goat on display, / with his head on a plate.” In patois pieces, such as “After We Are Weevils,” Torgersen’s poetry sounds an earthier but still hallucinatory note: “After we are weevils, / they baked in we bread. / Ask me ‘bout it sometime, / and remember we dread.” Formed in 1960s countercultural music ferment, the poet’s voice wanders through various styles, from folk picaresque to morbid psychedelia, and his imagery is often intriguing, even compelling. Sometimes, however, the verses fall flat on the printed page (“Aaa aa aaa / mm aaa aa aa / A’ them gone, / gone away, / yes they gone, / gone to stay”). At its best, though, the musicality of Torgersen’s poetry packs a strong emotional resonance, as in the elegiac chantey “One Love”—“Strike up, ye band members, / and play soft and low, / for ‘tis alla we / beyond the sunset must go, / and relive the story / from those lost days of glory, / where we once walked / through life hand in hand.”
This compilation’s original works are offbeat but arresting, featuring far-out content in a melodic format."
Author’s Reply to the Kirkus Review of Out of Exile
"First, let me say that I have no issues with the accuracy of your review. I was gratified to receive the consideration I did, writing as I did with no reputation nor provenance, having spent a lifetime in obscurity and having been told from the beginning to sit down and shut up. My concerns are two:
1. The reviewer has taken my essay The Ivory Towers of Babylon literally when the intent was humour and sarcasm. I was poking fun at both sides of the philosophical spectrum, capitalism and communism, for their common anti-intellectual bias. It was composed during a phone conversation with V. S. Naipaul of Trinidad, then president of the University of the West Indies. The conversation concerned my song, Where Are You Been Gone, recorded by my friend Michael Baker of Tobago, a local calypsonian, under the name Original Defirsto. Naipaul is the subject of that song.
2. The reviewer’s statement that Out of Exile has its origins in the 1960s cultural outpouring is accurate, however I have always felt disturbed that this period of cultural change on so many fronts, including art, music, civil rights and the peace movement should remain labeled by a man who opposed its very existence and did everything in his power to end it. The historical accounts of the period retain the perspective of a man who resigned in disgrace from the highest office in the land, and was pardoned before the fact so his crimes would never be exposed. I prefer the term American Renaissance for this period as it embodied more innovation in both the arts and social philosophy than any other period in American history. The fault lies with the history books, not Kirkus Review" - Ted Torgersen