Sharp Teeth - A Must Read

Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow

This is by far the best book I have read in a very long time.

It is a 300 page poem about surfers, lawyers, the dog catcher and lycanthropes in modern Los Angeles.

One of the aspects I enjoy is that it takes place in LA. I spent 25 to 35 there living on the beach. The book references places I know every well.

Here are some of my favorite parts.

What would you do
to protect the love you have?
Would you kill?
Would you hunt to kill?
Would you kill without mercy?
And if you wouldn’t
then how precious is your love?

...

The first time a boy her own age tried to kiss her,
a boy she adored,
she scratched and wept and ran.
Her father had grown bored or felt guilty but in any case
had stopped but by then it was far too late,
her body was anger, her blood laced with glass
shredding at every vein and ventricle as it ran through
in the years of haunted silence
Nobody knew.
Nobody saw.
Welcome Gesso Copy Mart.
Open 6 a.m to 9 p.m.

...

“This is a violent city
and I don’t mean rapes and bloodshed.
I mean the existence of every ounce of it.
This entire vast urbanity was bludgeoned from the earth,
torn and wrought,
piece by piece. A thousand bricks.
A thousand tiles.
The concrete and the steel girders
all bitten out of the soil and the rock.
Then, of course, it’s brought here,
to the desert, to death itself.
Not to mention the water, oh yes, the water
pilfered from hundred of miles away,
where birds and tree roots awoke one bleak day
reaching for moisture once empty dust,
because that moisture’s all been pulled here, to be with us
shimmering in the sweat of porn stars
cleaning the endless stream of dirty cars
wash the hands of plastic surgeons
after they’ve performed
yet another critically important implant.”

The last piece perfectly depicts Los Angeles. The way I remembered it and the way I loved it.

I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend giving it a read. If you enjoy the other books I have recommended you should read this one.

Definitely a book I will read again.

Matthew