It Takes One to Know One

Michael Lally, who garnered a 1999 American Book Award for his sensational debut Black Sparrow volume, It's Not Nostalgia, deploys the same stunning honesty and self-analytical clarity in this powerful new collection of autobiographical poetry and prose. Retracing his wandering life-path from a rough Irish Catholic boyhood in a working-class suburb of Newark, N. J., through turbulent years of radical political engagement in Washington, D.C., struggling-poet bohemianism in New York, and elusive brushes with movie-star fame in Hollywood, Lally finally circles back to his home turf of South Orange, an older and wiser pilgrim.In his ongoing quest for truth, healing and acceptance, the aging writer confronts his past loves and losses with rueful candor, toting up the missed connections, bruised egos, sexual obsessions and tarnished images accumulated along the way, as well as the belated recognitions.