Mercurial

By: Michael Brown

Narrated by: Michael Brown

Mercurial is to be characterized by rapid and unpredictable changing moods. The mercurial have qualities of eloquence and ingenuity. Mercurial people are animated, lively, and quick witted. Subject to sudden changes of mind, the mercurial are unpredictable, variable, and unstable. To be mercurial is to be ever changing, creative, and whimsical.

These poems celebrate Mercuralia, the major festival of the Roman God Mercury, the patron God of eloquence (and thus poetry), communication, and keeper of boundaries referring to his role as bridge between the upper and lower worlds, also the guide of souls to the Underworld.

In his third collection of poetry, Michael Brown looks behind closed doors to reveal harsh truths, marvels at the savage beauty of the world, and has disinhibited poetic conversations with Francis Bacon, Janet Frame, famous rent boys, psychiatric patients, and dead poets.

©2016 Michael Brown (P)2016 Michael Brown

A Moving Collection of Poetry

This was my first time listening to an audiobook of poetry, and I found it to be very moving. The poems are thoughtful and evocative and glide along at a fast clip.

The poems cover a variety of interesting topics, while the ones dealing with mental health and sexuality had the most impact on me. No Invitation to the Funeral, about a gay Muslim who commits suicide, is especially affecting.

Poet Michael Brown narrates the poems superbly, with clean, crisp pronunciation and exquisite phrasing.

Overall, this is an excellent collection of poetry and left me wanting to read more from this author.

*I was given a free review copy of this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Mercurially Bohemian

This whirlwind of tiny poems has little in common with each other except its Bohemian cynicism about the world. Poems of anger, blame, and sadness are occasionally punctuated by small rants. The result is an awareness which feels young and fresh like the rebellious indignation of twenty-somethings. But the content reminds us that behind their immature compulsion to confront and criticize the world, there is also substance.

The narration is good but it could be better. Since it was narrated by the author, all of the intonation is as the writer intended which is useful with such short works. However, the tone is mostly flat with a few exceptions where he allows himself to emote. For a collection of such focused contempt, I'd like to have had more passion. When it does shine through, you can really see the potential there.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Eclectic Poetry

The enjoyment of poetry is very subjective, but overall I found this collection of poetry/rants/lessons to be very heart-felt. Overall, it presented a gloomy, negative view of the world and how we humans connect -- or fail to connect -- with it. I found some very real truths in it, especially regarding the treatment of homosexuals. It is a worthwhile listen, although it won't bring you sunshine on a cloudy day. The narration is smooth and even. It is pretty flat and unemotional, but since the poet is narrating his own work, I presume the delivery reflects his mood and feelings.

I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.

Meh

The poetry was good enough. I didn’t care for the dark and grim view of everything. I need to be in the right mood for that. It just wasn’t my thing.

The narration is well done.

This audiobook was provided by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost in exchange for an unbiased review.

Very interesting

This isn’t really a story per-say it’s more of a run down of poems and story rants. It’s deep in spots and makes you think. I enjoyed it and I like the narrator.
This is an unbiased review with a credit from audiobookboom from the author.