The Glad Hand of God Points Backwards: Poems / Rachel Mennies, 79 p.

Mennies' poems treat her grandparents' Holocaust experiences as well as her own contemporary life in Philadelphia. Fluid and technically pleasing, they are for my taste too emotionally overwrought. I suspect in isolation any single poem might have seemed interesting, but as a collection she is too insistent on the dramatic kick in the teeth effect. My favorite was "Schonewetter & Grunewald, Coatmakers," a fine picture of her grandfather hemming coats for Gentile women. It's highly visual and suggestive without trying to make the lines bear too much weight.