2018 School Spending Survey Report
The Tao of Humiliation
BOA Editions. 2014. 304p. ISBN 9781938160325. pap. $16; ebk. ISBN 9781938160332. F
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This story collection by poet, novelist, and critic Upton takes its title from one of several winningly off-kilter stories set at a motivational rural retreat aimed toward breaking down the ego as a precursor to building it up. Upton elicits tremendous sympathy on the part of the reader for these and other characters facing existential crises, often with great aplomb, such as the actress seeking the root of her sudden bout of stage fright in "The Undressed Mirror" and the former student recalling her cad of a lit professor in "La Belle Dame Sans Professeur," a take-off on Keats's "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" aimed at the theory-driven academic who ultimately fails to honor the work itself.
VERDICT These well-imagined stories bear the mark of the poet in the best sense, and the reader will not soon forget them. They proceed by indirection, with elements that cohere only after the fact and open up further surprises upon rereading.
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