BOOKS

Fake Paul

Reviewed by Jeanne Fronda

Fake Paul
by Kimmy Beach
Turnstone Press, 2005

Kimmy Beach understands obsession. Beach’s latest collection of poems, fake Paul, offers up a series of odes that give readers a glimpse into the mind of a troubled, desperate fan.

Exploring notions of daydreams and desire, Beach, who has an English degree from the University of Alberta, shows us how an anonymous admirer traces the life of the Beatles’ singer-bassist Paul McCartney. The narrator travels to Liverpool and hunts out drab nightclubs where she can track the star’s former hangouts. On one of those jaunts she finds herself enraptured with the bassist of a tribute band. The hopeless devotee soon learns she can live out her fantasy by pursuing this stand-in Paul.

From the opening poem “Bass Guitar Frenzy” (“she knows that’s how you would toss your head/ while you made love to her”) to “Sound Check,” where she handles the bassist’s musical equipment (“run my tongue under/ your microphone/ take the dented head into my mouth/ lick the shaft, its sharp sharp metal”), Beach has produced a carnal and delightfully provocative catalogue of thoughts that can go through the mind of a spellbound fan. Beach has a talent for capturing moments of turbulent fantasy and for transforming these secretive thoughts into burning, profound poetry.

But there are also a few instants that record the narrator’s more innocent childhood memories, as Beach includes some harmless verse — some of which is untainted and ordinary, such as describing sitting on her grandmother’s couch as she thumbs through a book about the Beatles and draws in a sketchpad. So some of the poems serve as a reminder of how natural it is to develop an attraction to the famous.

But clearly the focus is on how this fascination with the famous can sometimes turn into a poisonous obsession, as some disturbed fans can develop an uncontrollable urge to pursue their objects of desire. The poet portrays this fixation by describing the fan’s sickly worship of the musician’s physical appearance, especially with his clothing and musical equipment and how “fabric clings to his body with sweat.” The fan’s obsession culminates when she obtains a wax museum head of the famous Beatle. She now has her victim captive, and even though it’s an imitation, she is content to possess and control it, pretending that it is the real Paul.

Though Beach’s poems are peppered with information, such as dates and places significant to Beatles history, this collection is not meant to be romantic or biographic. Instead, the collection probes the twisted and outrageous possibilities of dark obsession. fake Paul is a stirring example of revealing and original writing.