Amazon.com review: Playful and witty but always subversively literary, Want, the debut book from Seattle poet A.J. Rathbun, manages to bring together Tupac Shakur with the Italian novelist and poet Cesare Pavese to make the lost world of silent movies cohabitate with a love of Kansas–and he makes it all seem natural. Rathbun is a wide-ranging poet whose breathless, big-hearted poems take their time getting rolling. That’s part of the power and charm of this collection: it seduces us with its conversational tone and the wide net it casts. And it surprises us with phrases like “In the Italy of your life” or “I’m the type of guy who” as Rathbun makes a casual day with a friend changing his bike tire into an occasion to celebrate the blessed ordinariness of our lives. There’s an emotional generosity in these detailed examinations of people, places, and food. Want introduces Rathbun as a distinctive new voice. –James Gurley