As both poet and novelist, Charlie Smith has been hailed as "prodigiously talented" by the
New York Times
, and Madison Smartt Bell describes him as "a spectacular stylist" and "a visionary."
Before and After
, his fourth volume, is his most powerful collection to date—with poems so short and direct they hit home like a knife to the heart. In
, Smith effectively captures the intimate life of one family—in all its courage, deceit, misery, madness, love, revelation, and rage—and transforms it to record the life of the American family.