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Guest Post: Jackson Nieuwland reviews The Oregon Trail is the Oregon Trail by Gregory Sherl

By: Jackson Nieuwland


The Oregon Trail is the Oregon Trail (Mud Luscious Press) by Gregory Sherl

I had been waiting for this book for a long time and I am excited that it is now in my hands,
which is surprising because I haven’t read any of Greg’s poetry
(well I have read a couple poems from his blog in the last couple days but mentioning that takes away a lot of the power of what I’m saying).
Why the anticipation then?
Is it because Mud Luscious Press is one of my favourite publishers and I’ve enjoyed all of their previous titles?
No.
Well, maybe a little
but it’s because of the cult of Gregory Sherl.
Everyone else seems excited by him.
Excitement is contagious.
He talks about sex.
He says that poetry needs more fucking in it.
He is approachable and nice on face book.
Basically he just seems like a really cool, talented guy.
He has an aura about him.
And that was enough to make me buy his book
(well I had a years subscription of Mud Luscious anyway but I was really looking forward to this book, I promise).
I believed that if he had put himself into this book then this book was something that I wanted to read.
Now I have the book.
I haven’t read a single poem in it yet, but I have the book.
I haven’t read a single poem yet but my mind is already buzzing with thoughts for a review.
Having bought this book without any knowledge of Greg’s writing it seems appropriate to write my review without having read the book
(actually I‘m not sure how appropriate it is but I‘m doing it anyway
probably because I’m taking this course at the moment called Print, Communication, Culture and I‘ve been learning how much information you can get from a book without actually reading it (in fact instead of writing this review right now I should be writing a similar analysis of a different book which is worth 40% of my final grade in the class)).
We can call it a preview!
The first thing that strikes me is:
I don’t like the cover.
It doesn’t seem very cohesive to me.
It’s off balance.
Maybe there’s something I’m not getting,
maybe it’ll make sense once I’ve read the book,
but this would not be the first thing I would pick up in a bookstore.
Sorry.
Maybe it’s a homage to the game the book is based on.
The game I didn’t know existed before I heard about it in reference to this book
(I don‘t think it The Oregon Trail was a thing in New Zealand).
The book really yells out it’s connection to the game
(even more so if the cover is indeed an homage to its graphics).
The back cover announces,
“…based on the iconic video game The Oregon Trail…”
and then goes on to include a blurb from the co-creator of the game.
I know what you’re thinking: This book must be pretty legit to have the kind of co-sign!
I’m thinking it too,
But
I’m also slightly confused.
I know Greg as a poet.
Although he has two previous books, one of prose, one of poetry,
I think of him as a poet.
The blurb I mentioned just before called this a book of poetry and I was not surprised,
but along the bottom of the back cover
red and black text blurts,
“Novel(la) Series”.
What is going on?
Finding no other clues on the cover I am forced to open the book.
Inside I find a few things.
In the front: the name of the guy who designed the cover I don’t like,
and in the back: a list of all the other books in this ‘Novel(la) Series’,
and a bio of Greg that doesn’t include his previous prose collection
(probably because it’s considered a chapbook).
I’m still getting mixed signals!
This book is forcing me to look at its actual content!
So I flick through the pages
and at first I think I’m seeing prose poems,
the lines are long and the poems look like blocks.
Is this an explanation?
Is the inbetween form of the prose poem making it hard to pin this book down to one label?
No.
On closer inspection these are not prose poems.
I can see line breaks.
I can even see a few stanza breaks!
But I think I’m on the right track
and I think I have another idea to do with inbetween forms.
I’ve heard of these things called ‘novels-in-stories’.
I’ve even read a couple of them!
And while I wonder what the difference is between a novel-in-stories and a novel-in-chapters,
I think: what if this book is something similar?
What if this book is a novel(la)-in-poems?
That could be something really awesome.
There’s only one way to find out.
I guess I’ll have to read this darn thing.
Maybe I’ll write another review when I’m done.
Another cool thing I noticed is that there are no page numbers.
There is a maze on the cover (I like the idea of a maze on a cover, just not it’s execution in this instance) and there are no page numbers.
Is the lack of page numbers a trick to make it harder to navigate the maze that is this book?
Again, I guess I’ll have to read this darn thing
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