Review: Spotlit Girl by Kevin Oberlin

Spotlit Girl
Kevin Oberlin
The Kent State University Press
18 pgs.
ISBN: 978-0-87338-956-3

We all know, know of, a Spotlit Girl.
Dreams of the bright lights blur the vision
of reality, a reality that
may set in sooner rather than later.
The girl from a small town migrates to the big city,
the city of dreams both failed and fulfilled,
the chase is on and last indefinitely
for some, for most. Those lucky ones
catch the dream, live the dream what a short life
it is. Do you head back to the small town?
Or stay? Vision blurred reality unreal.
Kevin Oberlin collects this Spotlit Girl,
a girl we all know, know of, a familiar
story, a story that begins in Texas.

Kevin Oberlin guides us, the reader,
through the story of a jazz singer from
Texas with ambiguous navigation.
Do we start in Texas or are we going
back there as our Spotlit Girl sings the
“Star-Spangled Banner?” A non-sequential
sequence? Is she not yet old enough to
drive as she gets a “Workout” with her
“Hollywood beau?” Is our story about
a girl who is currently “spotlit” or has her
light separated from her body and
moved on to shine on another with dreams?
A “Cry” can identify joy, or it
can be the indicator of sorrow.

Tightly wound and packaged is how Kevin
Oberlin presents the Spotlit Girl.
Eighteen works signifies the coming of
age, the turn to adulthood, the emergence
from a girl. Unified, the work is, in
both form and subject. The form, “little song,”
the girl sings, little songs. A loose
variation of a tight form induces
the idea of ambiguousness,
of the sequence and the anonymousness
of the Spotlit Girl, any Spotlit Girl.
A recommendation to the reader,
you, enjoy the collection, enjoy the
Spotlit Girl. You may find you know her.