Cacoethes by Scott Michael Craig

Cacoethes Reviews

• 
  Grady

  M. Scott Craig Takes Us Into Ourselves
  
  Encountering a book whose very title requires hitting the dictionary suggests that there should be an 'open with caution' designator on the cover. Not so with M. Scott Craig's intensely innovative and shockingly cogent manner of writing - a book so full of his involvement with the world and the imagination that makes living in it a spectacle. Start with the title: CACOETHES (Medicine / Pathology) 'an uncontrollable urge or desire, especially for something harmful, a chronic and overwhelming desire, a mania: example, mania - a cacoethes for smoking.' And if this sounds as though the author is about to put us on a dangerous train to explore forbidden thoughts, then we should pay heed to his introductory comments: 'Cacoethes' is a combination of fiction and poetry that follows the strange course of a relationship. Everyone feels every strange feeling when they first start to feel out a new person in their life, and the feeling's mutual. __I've spent my last fifteen years in performance (acting, music, dance), sales, marketing, public relations, writing/editing (for publications, fiction, and government work), photography, and aviation. I would love to incorporate them all into one enormous collaboration, but separately will do just fine. Specialties - National sales awards, external load/vertical reference experience, acting/performance, novel/script/song writing, proposal creation, research/editing/analysis, speedwalking.' So it sounds like we may be in a surrealist's shop, but opening the book and finding the treasures it holds widens the reader's appreciation for just how far the English language can go and still communicate.
  
  Craig may challenge the way he places words on a page (some sections have absolutely no punctuation or even separation between words, a 'gimmick' appearing technique at first until the words and dissecting their story becomes intoxicating), he may spread stories in chunks throughout the book (and the reader may require patience to fit it all together), and he offers many poems or fragments of thought that seem simple until the blast of recognition comes through. Craig is after passion and his need for creativity becomes infectious as we read through this book. Some of the 'stories' are conversations with us: 'you've been in and had love, ions of it. You've been in the sea, waves of it. You've walked a field of lilies, the white scent of the sun...etc'. Craig can fly us all over the map and never once leave us without a sense of having been there. An in his poems we discover a different aura of his mind:
  
  FEVER AND LOVE AND THE LOOK YOU EMBRACE ME
  Fever and love and the look you embrace me and
  Fate and faith and summer and eyes and lips and
  Ankles amidst the sand and jewels and tulips and
  The breeze through your hair and across cheeks and
  Desire and sensation and foolish touching and
  Careful absorption and manipulative thoughts and
  Caress the tongue and sitting in soft grass that
  Tickles the thighs and eating fruit and joyous
  Laughter and celebration and easy feeling and
  Words and clouds and sunlight and hunger and
  Elation and timidity and salty air and fresh
  Kissing and afternoon shadows that tower
  Over and energy and sweat and resting and
  Blowing out candles in the house even though
  The electricity is our and finding you.
  
  This book of creations unlocks that too tightly closed need for exhilaration and fantasy and simply feeling what it is like to be living in the here and now and beyond all at the same time. M. Scott Craig holds a lantern to the possible.
  
  Grady Harp
  
• 
  Jacque

  This book was very interesting. It dealt with short stories and poems about passion and disappointment. There were some stories that I really got into while others I really didn’t like as much. None of them were awful, they were just not my favorite.
  I found the writing style to be interesting. He is a good writer who can pull you in to the stories. He is able to make you really feel with the characters in some of his stories.
  I found the fact that he would write a poem and then continue it further on in the writing to be very interesting. It made me wait to read more. One of my favorite poems was done that way. It was about a chair and seasons. It was a wonderful poem.
  I loved this book. I love the way it is written and the way it was presented.
  
• 
  Brian Armstrong

  In Cacoethes, author M. Scott Craig uses his unique blend of poetry and prose to draw the reader into psycho-emotional labyrinth of contemporary thought. Reading this book was like being sucked into the mind of another person and getting hopelessly trapped, watching through a strange pair of eyes as a manic, self-obsessed world passes by. Craig artfully creates metaphor and imagery that weave throughout a quickly paced story, responding prudently to the ravaged attention span of today's culture. I recommend this book for anyone who is looking for a fun travel book or something read in a park on a lazy afternoon.
• 
  Anissa

  Cacoethes is an emotional firehouse. This book starts off like a creative dream and drew most of my emotions out on my sleeve. I'm not sure I've read something like this, that treated all of my thoughts like valet service. He has created a themed collection that encourages you to want the same experiences felt through the book's relationship ideal. I think his creative writing style and his ability to infuse so much thought into so little words is a well-needed voice in literature.
• 
  A.

  Packed with emotions and desires
  
  However it was hard for me to connect with the poems and the pros for they seemed too personal.
  
  I think only those who lived the experience can relate easily to the contents
  
  In general, one could sense how the writer enjoyed making this book
• 
  Amy

  This interesting collection presented by M. Scott Craig has an ever- present theme of passion coursing throughout the pages. I recommend giving this work a read. I enjoyed many of the selections offered. *** Please note I received this book for free from Goodreads - First Reads.