At 135 pages, Steven Price's Anatomy of Keys is no slim volume of verse; how could it be? Tracing the track of a famous life full of remarkable acts, Price transforms a historical figure into a fictional character, rendering his story in verse. Harry Houdini, whose incredible escapes made him one of the most well-known men of his day, is revealed in Price’s work to have been a playful child, a vulnerable performer, a loyal husband, a grief-besieged son, as well as the escape artist we know, that man of the modern age. So Price explores the interior of persona, challenging our assumptions about headline-makers and revealing the human interior of fame:

Offstage, he looked
too ordinary in his strength to be so;
short and stumpish like a pugilist, he lived
by his fists, all ox-neck and thick root,
all barrel-chest, battered like a kitchen chair.

We find ourselves immersed in a work of imagination, a fictionalized biography that proceeds from Houdini’s childhood, through adolescence and into adulthood, exploring the years Houdini’s escapes were known around the world.

Through closed forms—the sonnet, the ghazal—and intricate interior rhythms, regulated rhyme scheme, free verse, prose poems, sections in series, Price crafts a collection of astute observations:

So that, trembling, fingering my skin, I began to doubt: had I
accomplished this, who was not remarkable, no more than others?

This, which sang in me for a time, then fell silent.

Months of dust and rain, abandoned, in flickering railcars. It is true: to
live without illusion is to live without hope.

Thus the fragility of the self is alive in even the most incredible acts. So Price gives us a three-dimensional Harry Houdini with an interior life as rich as his performing one.

Though “Anatomy of Keys” is not a biography, not in the technical sense, through his capacity for empathy Steven Price offers something equally compelling: a life story rich in detail which challenges our expectations and lingers long after we finish the final line.

–Carlin M. Wragg, Editor, Open Loop Press

In ANATOMY OF KEYS, Steven Price examines the life of Harry Houdini via a long form poem. The fifty shorter poems come together to create a longer work that highlights some of Houdini's most daring escapes alongside his personal life.

While the events of Houdini's life form the backbone of the piece, Price also invites us to consider the nature of bondage and escape on a metaphorical level. He contrasts Houdini's talents as an escape artist with certain personal experiences from which the man was never fully able to extricate himself. The reader, too, finds herself entrapped by the story. The narrative is complex; it twists and turns, and follows no set chronology. Price jumps from one event to the next with little regard for where they fit in the timeline. The result is a complicated, thought-provoking piece that challenges the reader with every word.

I appreciated it on an intellectual level but, as is so often the case, I had trouble forming an emotional connection to the text. I like my poetry to be personal and evocative. There are some wonderfully personal segments near the very end of the piece, but for the most part I felt as though I were hovering above, looking down upon Houdini with an impartial eye. The language is so carefully chosen that I found myself focusing on meaning over effect. This isn't necessarily a bad thing; in fact, with a poem like this it's probably a very good thing. It did not, however, jive with my own tastes, as I had hoped it would.

If you have any interest in long form poetry, this is certainly worth checking out; be forewarned, however, that it's an intellectual experience rather than an emotional one.

(Review copy provided by the publisher. This review originally appeared on my blog, Stella Matutina). ( )