REVIEWS
“After the Honeymoon is a fine addition to this young poet’s body of work. Simple thoughts simply written, deeply felt meditations on everyday life, and ability to write locally with universal themes; if Manchester ever is looking for an official city poet, I will be the first to nominate Graziano.”
—The Hippo
“Most of the poems are located within chaotic and troubled existences—lives of alienation, alcoholism and recovery, spousal violence, etc. I have a large amount of admiration for Graziano and his speakers who are determined to find meaning and beauty in the many faces of social dysfunction.”
—NewPages
"After the Honeymoon is a clever, observant exploration of youth and its loss (Part I), alcoholism and addiction (Part II), marriage and its demise (Part III), and parenting (Part IV). ... Graziano has a way of evincing distilled truth from every situation, and in language that feels just right for the moment. ... The collection as a whole is resolute with strength and honesty.”
—Prick of the Spindle
"Yes, the title of the book is appropriate, as it is well After the Honeymoon, but for the reader it is an enduring experience through, poetry, prose poems, and emotions.”
—Redactions
BLURBS
“Nate Graziano is master of that which startles yet succeeds the way nothing familiar can, as when he writes that the chicken fingers and fries in a kid’s meal sit on her plate ‘like dead relatives in lawn chairs.’ But it’s lines like ‘Beautiful women kill me and now I’m dead’ that make me stand tall, make me proud to be an American poet.”
—David Kirby, author of The House on Boulevard St.
“Nathan Graziano’s After the Honeymoon is a chronicle of afters, not just the honeymoon: after marriage, after kids, after a drinking binge. His voices are note-perfect: sad, when the situation requires it; satisfied in others; rueful in some.”
—Rusty Barnes, editor of Night Train
“Our 20s really have become life’s honeymoon—a decade of sex and booze and fantasy, ‘while the world drowns/in things we can’t afford.’ After the Honeymoon delivers what all poetry should: a new understanding to take away, with moments of laughter and astonishment along the way.”
—Timothy Green, editor of Rattle
“Forthright and unflinching, After the Honeymoon is a gem—one that elegantly and unapologetically conveys its gritty subject matter. You’ll marvel at Graziano’s sentences: the words he chooses, where he puts them, and the indelible marks they leave.”
—Jason Jordan, editor-in-chief of decomP
BACK COVER
After the last toast, when the din of the wedding bells has died and the photo albums have slumped into the closet, the stark truths become exposed. In After the Honeymoon, Nathan Graziano takes a sober and often humorous look at the joys and malaise of marriage and parenthood, our demons and addictions, and the demise of youth in American culture. Following Teaching Metaphors, his critically praised poetic portrait of public schools, After the Honeymoon is Graziano’s most diverse and ambitious collection to date.
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