Title: Poetic Biography of an American Baby Boomer: Conover Drive
Author: Daniel B. Royer
Publisher: Publish America
ISBN: 9781448954162
Pages: 71, Paperback
Genre: Poetry
Reviewed by: Gary Sorkin, Pacific Book Review
Pacific Book Review
I will write this review, with the same type of view, of the book by Daniel B. Royer, one of life’s poetic voyeurs. As he traverses the earth, from the day of his birth, he talks of the incidents, including losing his innocence. The stories of his life, witted sharp as a knife, are intriguing and enjoyable, as he becomes very lovable. A man with a dimension, of sensitivity and passion, he brings his readers along, to his life’s verbose song. One of wisdom and pain, at times quite insane, but along the way readers learn sooner, he’s quite the baby boomer.This is the unique style of Daniel B. Royer’s prose in his poetic auto-biographical collection of verses encompassing his book entitled Poetic Biography of an American Baby Boomer: Conover Drive. His style at times was very reminiscent of the famous Dr. Seuss, without of course the green eggs and ham and silly made-up words of the Doctor’s imaginary world. Daniel B. Royer’s world is not imaginary at all, but descriptively recalled to the minutia of detail, then put to the beat and pentameter of creative poetry with his signature style. A very pleasant and relaxing pace of interesting antidotes chronologically orchestrated to play out in a time line of his life’s encounters, his book brings the reader to have an inner smile while reading due to his humor laced throughout his sentences.
Rather a terse book, he recounts about 70 incidents comprising self-actualizing impact to his character development. Each verse is a page or less in duration. I found this book to be very enjoyable, light and humorous. Daniel B. Royer is a wordsmith extraordinaire, and his work is a product of the Mid-Western American culture in which he was raised during the time of the post war era of the Baby Boomer generation.
The cover of his book shows a personal photograph of a modest house with melting snow outside, however with the appearance of being the home to a family of normal values due to the groomed hedges and layered window coverings. It is most likely the home in which Daniel was raised, in the small town of Bay Village, Ohio. As the Poetic Biography of an American Baby Boomer is a collection of individual verses, it can be picked up, read, put down, and started again without losing any impact, therefore a great book for temporary time opportunities. This book would be a welcome table top adornment to a waiting room, or as a gift. I would hope Mr. Royer continues his articulation of his life in subsequent collections of verses.
