This volume seems to me to represent a new direction for Levine, trying to write about a more diffuse set of experiences. My sense is that for many of the poems there is a slight mismatch between the subjects he is tackling here and the clear, blunt language and tough style that served him so well in earlier collections focused on working class life and experience. In any case, fans of Levine will certainly enjoy reading this volume for the gems that can be found within it. But new readers of Levine would do better to start with his much more consistent collection *What Work Is* or his *Selected Poems.* ( )