Island of the Innocent

Reviews:

“The liberty [Glancy] takes in form and content is ambitious, and it pays off.” —The Corresponder, Minnesota State University

“Island of the Innocent is a grand work of midrash on the Book of Job. Inclusive, maximal, multifaceted, this is an expansive poetics, along the lines of Whitman, Ginsberg, or Alice Notley.” —Dan Alter, Heavy Feather Review

"Glancy uses poetry and prose to filter the Book of Job through the stories of Native Americans and other marginalized groups."—The New York Times Book Review

“A moving testament to the creative act of enduring, Glancy’s hybrid collection emphasizes the shadow speak of history, memory, and trauma as legacy.”—Foreword Reviews, starred review

Praise:

“The Book of Job, too often flattened into simplistic soundbites, demands extended dialogic engagement. Diane Glancy’s exquisite ‘consideration’ does this and more, teasing new relevance, new stories, and new questions out of the text. Refracted through Indian history and the words Glancy finds for Job’s neglected companion—words so carefully weighed some need to be newly invented – her book of Job proves a hacienda of solace of a more complex kind. Every classic text should be so fortunate.”—MARK LARRIMORE, author of The Book of Job: A Biography

“Glancy picks up Job’s poetry as found speech and finds it gives voice to the suffering of Native Americans who know what it feels like to have everything taken by a whirlwind and wonder what sort of God is behind it. This strange, marvelous book is like a flare sent across history from ancient Uz, illuminating what has long been enshadowed, including corners of our own souls. Unforgettable.”—JAMES K.A. SMITH, author of On the Road with Saint Augustine

“Christianity and the Native American are rarely found harmoniously in the same sentence, let alone the same poem. Yet Diane Glancy’s sensibility . . . makes her sui generis, allowing her to explore and write around these two subjects until they sing. With the poems and hybrid essays in Island of the Innocent, she’s once again drawn the reader into her unusual mind. What bounty to have Glancy’s great art erupt once more. —SPENCER REECE, author of The Clerk’s Tale and The Road to Emmaus

"Strange and sublime. In these lines, a magic both biblical and quotidian unfurls."—DIANE SEUSS, author of Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl