The Refinery

Poetry. "Janna Plant's mixed genre book (are these diary entries poems or are they stories? are they, in fact, diary entries?) is structured around two fields of metaphor: the refinery and the human body. The awkwardness of the fit between oil refinery and human body is intended; both systems are significant for the processes they engender. The aptly named Plant (version and subversion both of manufacturing) casts doubt on traditional notions of refinement--girl refined into woman into wife into mother--and in so doing gives us a poignant, playful look into adolescence in a Los Angeles oil town"--Susan M. Schultz.