Poetry. Friedman has a great deal to say about myth, history, and the dance of the protozoa, not to mention the invention of a new perfume, Michael Friedman's Night of Magic ... Members of a royal family, king, queen, princess, join monsters, gods, beatniks, and Jesus to live the kinds of lives we'd like for ouselves, if we could but escape this damned restrictive prison of self ... This work is drenched in wit and brio, its narrative mysteriously tangled with anxiety and alterity. A natural melancholia attaches itself to the underside of the text, like Kate Winslet going back onto the Titanic after Leo's made sure she's safe in the lifeboat -- Kevin Killian. Michael Friedman is the author of ARTS & LETTERS, CAMEO and SPECIAL CAPACITY (all available from SPD). Since 1986 he has edited the award-winning literary journal SHINY.