Louis Simpson once wrote that 'The Open Road goes to the used-car lot.' It doesn't any more. It goes to a suburban cul-de-sac where:

     Most people are content
     to make a decent living.
     They take pride in their homes and raising a family.
     The women attend meetings at the PTA …
     There aren't too many alternatives.

The prosaic nature of the language mirrors the life-style, as does its easy-going, good-natured tone of speech. Simpson's poems [in Caviare at the Funeral] are all 'up front'. He can talk about spiritual emptiness without being boring. He's never superior to his subject. It's a considerable and democratic art. If life is prosaic it still has to he understood. A couple stand by the freeway with their broken-down car. 'They look surprised, and ashamed / to be so helpless … let down in the middle of the road!'… The American Dream is beached...