Village Idiot, by Ross Vassilev, an eBook published by Full of Crow Press. Reviewed By Michael J. Solender

While legions of writers and poets struggle with punching up colorful words in just the right shade to elicit emotion or punctuate their meanings, Ross Vassilev manages to connect his work with the reader in black and white. Mostly black.

Vassilev, editor of Opium Poetry 2, and Asphodel Madness, has 10 of his works featured in the eBook, Village Idiot, published by Full of Crow Press. Vassilev doesn’t rely on carefully crafted prose or just the right word combinations to create a mood or elicit a response from his readers. He speaks viscerally, in short bursts and with blunt phrasing that often punches his readers right in their gut.

There is an ache and dull flatness in V.I. that concusses one into re-reading the work over and over, giving rise to a certainty that you must have missed something the first time around.

His piece, a miserable profession offers the lament of the poet who has been forced to move back into the home of his parents:

I’m the poet who moved back in with his parents

after getting fired from his last job

I’m the 6-foot-1 poet who’s fat and diabetic

I’m the would-be pseudo poet who’s giving it a try

I’m the poet who sits on the patio summer nights

listening to crickets

and staring up at the stars

………….

Vassilev’s voice speaks to the disenfranchised.  There is truly an irony in this. As we move into the second decade of the new millennium, the obsession with social networking and the insatiable need to connect even with people we are likely to never meet, Vassilev’s prose resonates with those on islands created from their own doing. In the eponymous work, village idiot, the protagonist finds himself fired from work, too lazy to shave, with energy for nothing much beyond staying up all night watching Fellini movies:

I’m a bum.

an idiot. a loser.

I’m a Sandinista.

I’m a goddamn

good-for-nothing foreigner.

…………………..

this country is overrun

with village idiots

………………..

give us all a hand.

Don’t confuse colorless with bleak, or without emotion. There is plenty of punch and even humor in Vassilev’s work. His writing is wry, sardonic and plays with both satire and outright rebellion.

Vassilev is nothing if not prolific. His work is all over the web and in addition to the above zines you can read him at Strange Road,  Rusty Truck, Word Riot and countless other venues. FOC exhibits a light touch with their monochromatic design on Village Idiot. The look contributes to the overall stark feel, a perfect foil for words that stand very nicely on their own, no Technicolor required.

Michael J. Solender blogs here: Not From Here, Are You?

Filed under: Poetry by LynnAlexander