"I don't care what you think about the way I write I die on the page every time…I am not special. I am better than you. I am alone. I am the product." --Beau Sia

All this before I even get a chance to open the book! Before having a chance to form my own opinion, Mr. Sia takes away any opportunity for me to disagree with him, agree with him, hate him, love him…whatever. The way I feel about him or his writing means nothing to him and that's exactly why I fall in love with him over and over again with every turn of a page.

His overt disregard for pleasing people is obvious from the get-go. A Night Without Armor II: The Revenge is Beau Sia's mocking reaction to the book of poetry Jewel recently got published. Each of his 113 poems shares a title with each of Jewel's 113 poems, but the content couldn't be more different. Also, he wrote the entire book in 4 hours, which I doubt Jewel could claim. Both writers, however, poured their hearts onto the page. That similarity is evident. I just wonder whose heart is more honest.

I guess what I wanted was

true love,
but really drunk
and alone
at three
in the morning
I f-cked you
anyway…

Sia shares himself in a way few people are willing to do. Blatantly and obnoxiously, he lets me in on little snippets of his life and into little rooms in his brain that makes me realize men really are shallow and insensitive. With Beau, however, I don't mind. In fact, his writing really does it for me and I find myself wishing I had the perfect ass that makes him hard on page 82.

Thankfully, he knows the meanings of most, if not all of the words he uses in his poetry. A feat not terribly difficult to master, considering the frequent use of monosyllabic words such as, "fat, cow, coke, head, blow, job, f-ck, me."

A former film student at NYU, Sia is not just a writer. He also has a highly regarded spoken word CD out called, "Attack! Attack! Go!" available in the types of places that sell these sorts of things. So multi-talented, so inspirational, Beau is the unofficial spokesperson of a new anti-politically-correct generation.

I wish I could be as cunning and coy as MTV's Kurt Loder interviewing Jewel about her book, A Night Without Armor. As you know (and if you don't know, I've over-estimated the continued and undeserved popularity of MTV), Loder detected a misused word in Jewel's book and called her on it. She poutily and defiantly defended her word choice, despite the obvious (and obviously forgettable, as I cannot recall the word in question) error she made. Unfortunately, I don't have anything as cutting and oppositional to point out as grammatical errors.

This book is entertaining from start to finish. It's a quick read and a mind f-ck. Just when I thought I'd heard it all, I read the next poem and was again flabbergasted with his poignant portrayals of his personal experiences. Maybe I was offended by some of his casual, off-handed, insulting remarks. That's what makes this book so remarkable. It takes a lot to truly offend people these days, and yet nearly every page of this book is entirely offensive. My hat's off to this man.

Even though I don't trust Beau Sia, I give him a lot of credit for giving the finger to the fragile egos of an even more sensitive political environment in this great land of ours.

(Note: This entire review of A Night Without Armor II: The Revenge is just a silly lie…no…wait…that was the poem on page 108 called "sauna." Nevermind.)




Recommended: Yes