A charming and accessible collection of poems dedicated to one of the most American of inventions—fast food. “I went back for seconds.” —Dallas Crow, Rain Taxi Review of Books
El Dorado Freddy’s may be the first book of fast-food poetry. In poems like “Olive Garden,” “Culver’s,” “Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen,” “Cracker Barrel,” “Applebee’s (after James Wright),” Danny Caine—owner of the Raven Book Store in Lawrence, Kansas—“reviews” chain restaurants, bringing our attention to a slice of American life we often overlook, even though it’s everywhere. Along the way, he touches on such topics as parenting, the Midwest, politics, and the pitfalls of nostalgia. Caine’s wry, deceptively accomplished poems are paired with Tara Wray’s color-drenched photos. The result is a literary yet goofy homage to American food and identity, set in a midwestern landscape dotted by the light of fast-food restaurants’ glowing signs. Perfect for those readers who love both poetry and Popeye’s.
“Caine’s work has a tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek appeal that is sly enough to fool the people who believe Popeye’s chicken could be considered healthy, and funny enough to make the rest of us laugh, or groan, to ourselves. Wray’s images in El Dorado Freddy’s are understated in their Steven Shore-esque ability to capture the essence of a meal when we’d rather not admit to, but cannot stop from embracing.” —Cary Benbow, F-Stop Magazine
