Fruits & Vegetables, Jong's first book, was a sweet beginning for an exciting new poet. The title poems are rich and garden-fresh…. The images are fleshy, organic. They emanate from an observant and productive woman who enjoys growing bountiful fruit and vegetable poems for her readers….

Intriguing concepts about male-female relationships originate in Half-Lives…. On the other hand, her list poems begin to lose their effect in Half-Lives. In "Paper Cuts" and "Men," for example, an enjoyable humor is present with fairly interesting insights, but the all-too-frequent psychological conclusions now seem cute, too clever, and too facile.

In Loveroot, list poems or lists within poems appear even more often. They seem to be a pat way to render what could otherwise be a more significant emotional exploration. (p. 94)

In poems like "Wrinkles" or "Sexual Soup," a prose-like style adds to the too-simple representation of emotions…. Too easy pronouncements of...