The Big Smoke (Penguin Poets)

I’ve seen Jack Johnson documentaries and wasn’t sure how his life could be portrayed in poetry…until I heard Matejka’s reading of “Battle Royal.” After I heard him talk about the years of research he put into learning about Johnson and how complex the man was, I ordered the book.I was blown away by the imagery, emotion, and lessons that came from each poem. I found myself pausing after each one to reflect on what I read – sometimes going back to reread the poem two or three times back-to-back. Having some idea of Johnson’s life from documentaries and then reading the poems to give us an idea about him as a person is hard to put into words. What I appreciated about the poems is that Matejka didn’t simply give us one side of Johnson as a boxer but helped us see him as he wanted to be seen – a man (with feelings, desires, concerns, goals, etc.).

A novel in poetic form? I was skeptical, but it was brilliantly executed. By the end, a story was told, shadows and light of this compelling American story revealed as only poetry can. Inspiring, precise and lyrical, this is a form of storytelling I hope to see more of. Jack Johnson was an American hero in the truest sense: blustery, brutal, fearless, with a stubborn refusal to accept historical precedent. He was the embodiment of the white American male's fear of what a black man could become at a time when it seemed impossible such a thing could happen. Johnson was a monster to the white women he became openly involved with. So he is no easy, simple hero. But to a people enslaved, he was a glimpse into a possibility that may yet become a reality. Read this book.

This is a wonderful collection. I have used it to introduce new-to-literature college students to various critical lenses. To name a few, New Historicism, Psychoanalytic Criticism, and Feminism come to life in The Big Smoke. Personally, it opened a portal through which I was able to discover so much that was new to me as well.

How is it possible that this finalist for the National Book Award AND the Pulitzer Prize has so few customer reviews? It's a great collection of poetry, unique in both the style of the poetry and the story it tells. The focus here is on the first African American Heavyweight Champion of the World, Jack Johnson, including one long poem that tells the story of his greatest fight. But we also see the other side of Johnson, including his interest in opera and his violent relationships outside the ring. Terrific book.

This is some powerful poetry. A collection of pieces in the voices of fighter Jack Johnson and the white women he loved and betrayed, Adrian Matejka captures the rhythmic style of boxing in his phrasings, the lyrical punch of the pugilist in his words. I found myself going back and rereading passages just for their sheer impact, be it beauty or brutality.This is fifteen rounds of pure and powerful poetry. I'm eager to dig more deeply into Johnson's legend and Matejka's other works. As for "The Big Smoke?" Seek it out.

Jack Johnson is like, a really fascinating guy and this book was probs worth more than I paid for it but I'm on a tight budget because I have to buy a lot of model airplanes and dioramas etc for fantasy satisfying reasons so like, yeah, the price was good and the book was a nice read.

An interesting concept volume that promises more than a revision of the legend of Jack Johnson, but gets lost in attempting multiple contextual points of view.

Fan of Jack Johnson. Loved this poetic tribute to a great American character.