What Is Poetry? Review of TO THE MAN IN THE RED SUIT by Christina Fulton

To the Man in the Red Suit by Christina Fulton

Review by Dr. Maureen Goldstein

What is poetry? This age-old question spans from the Ancients to the millennium, and in most cases, the answers will vary according to the literary period. 

Poetry may convey emotions/attitudes on any given subject ranging from philosophy, social consciousness, to perspectives on personal feelings or events. Christina Fulton’s To the Man in the Red Suit seamlessly combines all of these definitions of poetry with allusions from antiquity, biblical references, and contemporary memes of lighthearted/dark imagery and playful/scathing diction.

Although the autobiographical subject of this text is the suicide of her father, Fulton presents her reactions in a manner relatable to readers who have experienced a wide array of difficult situations to trauma. Above all, the seductive tone and language of the writing is captivating and appealing to any audience.  

The first page apprises the reader of Fulton’s mindset and her relationship with her father—the focus of the poetry. She begins with lines from Tennyson to his son, “Sleep and rest, sleep and rest/ Father will come to thee soon.”  Next, she summarizes Eleanor Roosevelt’s concept of a father as someone who helps with household chores and child-rearing as characteristic of a successful father. The final line “Write a book about me—It will sell!” a quote by Fulton’s egocentric father, sets the tone and focus of the text. And each page expresses divergent emotions, ranging from disappointment to the initial realization of who her father actually was, “In the blue hotel / built from fake haiku cocaine / I saw your lies bend” (1). She cleverly juxtaposes the Tohoku earthquake in Japan and the subsequent tsunami with her father’s suicide along with the aftermath of these incidents. The devastation of the natural disasters mirrors her horror as she describes her father as “A cross between S & M / and sunshine / He loved / Himself (6).

The structure easily glides between prose and poetry, evoking a myriad of impressions as Fulton traces her father’s erratic behavior with rollercoaster imagery of her continual discoveries and reactions to his conduct. She blends the images of playful clowns and Barbie with dark pestilence to describe his antithetical escapades, and later, his shallow character, “You grew up / to look down / on Ragu” (10). She symbolizes her metaphoric “crash” with a vehicular collision and the ensuing brain damage (13). The comparison of a hurricane sounding like a screaming cat, with “churning uncertainty” (51) embodies the unpredictable nature of her father and his toxicity, extending to his wife as well, a vulnerable victim of her husband and his ghoulish relatives.

The varied settings of Disney rides, the Jersey Shore, and Key West, expose additional scenarios of the intricate father-daughter relationship. The water images everywhere—disparate but parallel—seamlessly underlie the fluidity of the writing throughout the entire text. And the color red, from the title to the last page, harmoniously provides coherence to the emotions, imagery, and diction of this engaging poetry.

To the Man in the Red Suit is a must read—it will touch you on many levels. Fast-paced with mercurial landscapes and situations, this poetry is a mesmerizing, thought-provoking journey toward resiliency.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Man-Red-Suit-Rootstock-Poetry/dp/1578690277/

Rootstock Publishing: https://www.rootstockpublishing.com/rootstock-books/man-in-the-red-suit

 

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Dr. Maureen Goldstein is a professor at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida. Her background is in multicultural and feminist studies. She is the author of “Haitian Poets and Their Contribution to Florida Culture and Education.”

TO THE MAN IN THE RED SUIT

Dark, humorous, abrasive, bereft, and whimsical: these are poems of the grief process within a dysfunctional and fractured family and world. In her debut full-length collection, Fulton writes about her father’s suicide and its aftermath; about strained familial relationships and dealing with regret and grief. She acknowledges mental health concerns, internal and global suffering, and the hope that can only be obtained through turning trauma into art. This is a masterful collection of poetry that brings light back into the cracks left by depression and loss.

“A fine collection that gives grief the tonic sting of saltwater.” KIRKUS STARRED REVIEW

Tags: featured, poetry, women writers

Category: On Writing