SOURCE: “Jangling & Gritty,” in American Poetry Review, Vol. 16, No. 5, December, 1994, p. 23.

In the following review of Against the Evidence, Buttel praises Ignatow's voice, which Buttel argues depicts the reality of American urban life with gruffness and insight.

In a photo on the front cover of Against the Evidence, David Ignatow stares out sternly at potential readers, as if to warn off those desiring to find ingratiating poems characterized by lyrical grace or elaborate design. In “Hello,” a brash broadside, he satirizes such poetry, ridiculing the presentation of a national award to a prominent poet for the perfect form of his poems: “Hello, drug addict, can you become a poem of perfect form? / “Hello, Mafia, can you become a poem of perfect form?”—and so on, referring at one point to “those bastards outside / who want to disturb us with their imperfect poems.” Clearly Ignatow considers himself to be...