Arnold Skemer's review of Sofisticated White Trash

this review appears in ZYX #65.

SOFISTICATED WHITE TRASH
J.J. Campbell
Interior Noise Press
Austin, TX.
978-0-9816606-8-4
$15.00
2013

A tortured soul out of sync with others, a societal reject knowing unremitting mental torture, a man isolated from humanity and, in a sense, isolated from himself. When he walks down a street he sees a steaming turd on the sidewalk. He stops, considers it and walks right towards it, stomping his foot into it. Depressed though he is, primal urges surge through his body. Endless masturbatory activity is the result. He watches Soul Train reruns to get revved up, even engaging in "convict pussy." But when the ejaculation is spent he returns to the meaninglessness of his existence. Campbell is an honest man much more frank than the usual and in his misanthropy, nihilism and obscene disregard of social propriety, there is something very liberating. He's depressed, disgusted and alienated but his spirit thrives, rife with invective and disruptive power. He doesn't hold anything back. This is strong stuff, not for prissy people. He gets quite disgusting but there is a release in all this. There is a thrill rushing through the mind as one listens to the diatribes. Other poets treat of the underside of life but Campbell's spirit of revolt is imbued with outrageous humor that transcends the vile garbage of living and grants relief.