Of "Petrushkin , " Ron Charach's last book, "The Globe & Mail" wrote: "These poems remind us how effective narrative and anecdote can be in poetry. They owe more to Chekhov and I.B. Singer than to Yeats and Wallace Stevens. Charach's use of language is not dazzling; it is unobtrusive and utilitarian because his goal--something rare nowadays--is to say something about the human condition. And he says it with a voice notable for its compassion and humour." In his new collection, "Dungenessque, " Charach builds on his strength as a storyteller, infusing his poems with the metaphoric intensity that characterized his first book, "The Big Life Painting." One by one, the matrices of our identity--physical, sexual, relational and cultural--are shown to be as pitiable and as strangely noble as the bold character armour that conceals them. Dungenessque is a compelling study of pride, shame and redemption. With the insight of a practising therapist and the skill of a surgeon, Charach removes the outer shell that protects us from each other to explore those vulnerable areas in which the embattled self resides. "Dungenessque" is Charach's sixth collection of poems.