Poetry. Women's Studies. In this accomplished and sure first collection, poet Missy Brownson revisits the venerable genre of domestic advice manuals, those 19th and 20th century compendia of wisdom designed to guide women (especially aspiring women of the rising middle class) in the exercise of their proper roles in the home and society. Her response is a wicked and witty rejoinder from the perspective of a contemporary woman navigating the changing and challenging terrain of gender expectations and sexual politics and possibilities. The contrast can be hilarious, as in the poem On Buying Produce, where a snippet of Victorian era advice on the ripeness of Fruits prefaces an encounter with a former lover in the grocery. But there is a seriousness to this venture, especially in the poems in the concluding section, Good Daughter Wants: A daddy that can stand up. / A mother that won't walk away...To bend at the waist / without breaking. There is just a hint of nostalgic regret here, that there are no guides, no easy advice, for this most essential woman's work of finding her way in the world, to free that girl, / the one / least expected but / most likely to.
