Review of You, This Is Me...OVER?!

[Bigwig1973]

[Following is a volunteer review of "You, This Is Me...OVER?!" by Clinton Beaudel Dooley.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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You, This Is Me...Over? is Clinton Beaudel Dooley's bold and candid literary catharsis, a varied selection of introspective poetry, spontaneously and impulsively jotted over the years, polished and then combined with elucidating prose that is equally ingenuous. The writing tells the story of how a veteran (and son, friend, husband, and father) habitually militaristic through necessity, came to understand himself better with the guidance of professionals, the patience of his loved ones, and patience with himself.

Impulsively inspired to join the armed forces after 9/11, Dooley began his military career with the Oklahoma National Guard in 2001. Three years later, again somewhat impulsively, Dooley decided to quit community college to sign up for the United States Army full time, eventually becoming a Green Beret. Returning home to civilian life after seventeen years in the military, the combination of unprocessed memories, misunderstood motivations, and a bothersome bad habit (that had likely been pestering him for a while) manifested as behaviors that resulted in him eventually accepting professional help. Through his writing and introspection, Dooley, who refers to himself as a "handsome faced hand grenade" began to recognize the origins of different latent impetus within himself, eventually integrating this "new" information about himself into his civilian life.

I enjoyed reading this book. There is a nice balance between prose and poetry and the subject matter of the poems is varied. I would recommend it to any reader who feels that a mixture of prose and poetry covering a wide range of subjects will help suit their mood. More specifically, Dooley's goal in writing his book was to aid in the healing process of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and to help heal fellow patriots "no matter what flag flies over our homes"(19). I think that Dooley's book might be beneficial to anyone with unprocessed traumas. Also, readers who appreciate Dostoevsky's or Poe's psychological works would likely enjoy his poetry and prose. I would not recommend this book to anyone who is extremely sensitive to profanity, eroticism, or violence because the book does contain profanity, a few of the poems are mildly erotic, and several poems contain graphic elements.

Personally, the prose commentaries are my favorite parts of this book. But, for the sake of those who may be reading this for therapeutic reasons, I would recommend the poetry. Generally speaking, it takes less time to read one poem than it does to read prose that contains the same information. Also, the explanatory aspect of a prose piece oftentimes sacrifices emotional meaning, which I think is often the subject of Dooley's poetry. The thing that bothered me most about the book was that the author seems to be a bit self-deprecating. Other than that, there really is not anything about his book that I did not like.

I think Dooley's You, This Is Me...Over? deserves 3 out of 4 stars. Although he intentionally tried to keep his own voice authentic which resulted in the book seeming a bit unpolished, there were also grammatical mistakes that I felt were unintentional. Other than those mistakes, I have only positive things to say about his book. In spite of it being published with a particular audience in mind, the subject matter and writing style would appeal to a variety of readers. The prose is interesting, entertaining, and easy to understand. The subjects of the poems vary, some are about love, some are about aggression, and some are inspired by his time in the military. Therapeutically, I think readers would find much of his writing insightful and I think in many cases, reading his book would be helpful in dealing not only with PTSD, but also with a variety of issues.

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You, This Is Me...OVER?!
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