| "Following a
trajectory from apocalypse to redemption, McDowell's third collection
invites readers to go "into the writing where anything/Can
happen." On Foot, In Flames is filled with "a sweet
sighing/From the souls of trees" and "recollections
of the days when you/Surprised yourself with competence, even
grace." McDowell appeals to grace in part as a response
to violence, as in his depiction of working in a tannery-"Stitched
into gloves and apron,'Lye-spattered, soaked with grease,/I
feed my machine 1,200 hides a day./Sometimes I think this was
the neck, this the tail"-or in the blank-verse monologues
that witness, among other things, violence against women."
— Publishers Weekly, May 27, 2002
"I am caught up again and again in McDowell's strong
narrative line. Whether he is reshaping an old myth or detailing
an actual event, this poet is a storyteller at the top of
his form."
— Maxine Kumin, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
"On Foot, In Flames is filled with loneliness, with
the knowledge that 'the world dismantles us,' but it's also
prayerful, its music an affirmation that threads through even
the narratives of violence and betrayal."
—Kim Addonizio
"On the surface, these poems seem easy reveries, hymns
to family and farm, human yearnings toward God. But they are
also an ambitious scrutiny of these subjects, tough-minded
and honest."
— Chase Twichell
"McDowell's long poems tell stories, and his short
ones are vignettes that pique the reader's narrative imagination.
His new poems constitute quite an advance…Very impressive."
—Ray Olson in Booklist, March 14, 2002
"Recommended!"
— Carol Muske-Dukes in Los Angeles Times, December 8,
2002
"McDowell's language is sometimes heartbreakingly beautiful,
his flow as caressing as a cherished memory. True, the poems
here are often redolent with human loneliness, dangerously
aware of the fragility of the human psyche. But McDowell's
vision, his gift, transcends mere pathos. McDowell knows the
stories that form the lining of the human heart."
— Dan Hays in the Statesman Journal (Salem, Oregon),
May 12, 2002
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