Opcit at Large

"John Barr, writer of epic poems or poetic epics (the poetry-illiterate may not draw a distinction), has returned with Book II of The Adventures of Ibn Opcit. This second volume, Opcit at Large, mires our eponymous poet-hero in more than a few existential pickles.... Those enamored of clever turns of phrase will enjoy Opcit at Large. The stories are surreal, existential landscapes that beg a second read. Barr is a wizard at wordplay."
--ForeWord Reviews

Barr imbues his characters with such distinct voices and is so incredibly comfortable with wordplay and truly gifted at turns of phrase that the result is a (nearly guilty) pleasure to read.
--Booklist

"I have relished reading Grace and rereading it many times. I think it is an extraordinary piece of writing, so daring and yet so joyfully positive. At times uproariously funny, and then, suddenly, so beautifully sad, a wondrous attempt to humanize the language that for me translates into sheer reading pleasure. I keep it on my small private bookshelf, it has given me a reading pleasure that doesn't come often from new poetry these days."--Alastair Reid, The New Yorker
"In Grace, not only does John Barr handle the demanding form of the long poem with skill and panache, but he delivers a one-of-a-kind linguistic tour de force. Spoken mostly in a Caribbean dialect and rollicking with word play, Grace achieves a riotous level of verbal inventiveness. I don't know any other work with which to compare it unless we think of it as a kind of funky Finnegans Wake in verse with palm trees. You have never read anything quite like this wildly sustained imaginative drama. Set those one-page lyrics aside and dive into this momentous feat."--Billy Collins
"John Barr's Grace is a wonderful surprise. It's that rarest, rarest, rarest of phenomena, an enjoyable book of contemporary poetry. He's on to something marvelous. The potential of his new approach is limitless."--Tom Wolfe
"The six parts of [Grace] add up to a linguistic tour de force, verbal playfulness reminiscent of the work of James Joyce or Anthony Burgess. Grace is a unique reading experience, guaranteed to add spice to the 'glum tostada' of American poetry."--Library Journal