The Whole Picture Show (ePub)

Just when I despaired that new volumes of poetry had lost all shapeliness and music, along comes Arthur McMaster's The Whole Picture Show, a panopticon of familial, social, and aesthetic experiences. I hear subtle notes of poets like Wallace Stevens and Donald Justice in certain phrasings and stanzaic arrangements — yet also a reverent irreverence for the subjects McMaster encounters that are his own lyric gift. — Stuart Dischell

These beautifully restrained poems seem to have been written by a poet in a toga and laurel leaves with an energy drink in one hand and a skateboard in the other, a quester about to go out, see everything and return to his fireside to write. Music, cocktails, photographs, friends, relatives, books, even a pistol or two: everything is in these poems. I wish that I had written them. — David Kirby

Rueful good humor about life's ironies and intense regard for its urgencies distinguish Arthur McMaster's vision. He writes with maturity and wisdom of "vulnerable human possibility." The Whole Picture Show is the whole story of one poet's engagement with our times. — Mark Jarman

Reading Arthur McMaster's delightful The Whole Picture Show is like sitting at the table after a good meal, with brandies, music in the background. The poems are artfully constructed in a variety of forms, with an ear always carefully attuned to the music of the story. The narrator is looking back at a full life and relating scenes with humor, generosity and compassion. A fine and big-hearted read. — Sidney Wade