[12/15/24] Blouin, Michael: Hard Electric

Anvil Press, paperback

Publication Date: December 15, 2024

Publisher Marketing: 

Hard Electric is Michael Blouin's third book of poetry, a road-tripping, bridge-burning collection of the author's hard-won and soft-edged reflections that seem to stutter-step towards resolution while tumbling down a decided slant towards disaster. "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" was Celine Dion's first North American hit and in it she asks: "Where do all the lonely hearts go?"

In Hard Electric Blouin presents a bleakly unsettling but ultimately life-affirming treatise that hints at his fascination with the same question and perhaps shuffles into the neighbourhood of an answer. That neighbourhood is peopled with the late-night bars of Key West's Duval Street, the sharp spice of BBQ joints, sunburned beach motels and Christmas lights frozen to February trees. And Susan Sarandon's cousin.

All in a work that legendary poet bill bissett has called: "One of the most moving books I've ever read, with some of the wisest lines ever written."

It's a book not for the faint of heart, but for the lonely hearted, and for those who know them well.