REVIEW OF 29 CHEESEBURGERS FROM POETRY REVIEW

"29 Cheeseburgers is a more complex volume. Like a more calorific Proustian madeleine, these "edged circle[s] of nausea" conjure various losses. Lamoureux has a quiet but convincing surrealism; as he says "whenever tragedy smacks / I think of smiling elves." The poetry reflects the "constant crush of tongues" in the modern city: Japanese cartoons and bureaucratic jargon, advertising jingles and ouija board jinks. It's an interzone, where you "can't tell the cafes from the bars." Cutting thorugh the white noise is a powerfully articulated vision of complex emotions; a simultaneous blending of cynicism and hopefulness. "Would that I were/ punk rock & could/ care less about those girls". Evoking, as in [Joe Torra’s After the Chinese] also involves admitting absence."

--Stuart Kelley, from "Sean Cole, Itty City; Jack Evans, Work; Mark Lamoureux, 29 Cheeseburgers; Joseph Tora, After the Chinese" from Poetry Review, vol 95 no 1, Spring 2005.