“As we get older, many of us will develop diseases and conditions that will menace not only our bodies, but also the spiritual nature of our humanity, and our most personal definitions of who we are. How do we value our lives when we are faced with onerous interventions of the body to staunch dwindling expectations of the soul? In his dry-eyed journey through twelve years of life with and despite polycystic kidney disease, G. Murray Thomas offers no easy answers, not even when he is presented with the boon of a new kidney, and a revolutionary extension of his life. Instead, he chronicles the simple and personal truths—all seen through a refreshingly unsentimental lens. He allows his typewriter to do the thinking for him without digressions into self-pity, and he nixes unwieldy wrestling sessions with grandiosity in favor of pinpointing the truth, which sometimes pops up in the damnedest places. That Thomas doesn’t mine his experience to forge poetry. He merely adds to the record, and the poetry arrives. This collection is an account of what happened, and it bristles with the gentle intelligence and humor of a poet of great maturity. His is precisely the kind of voice you want recounting the experience just in case it happens to you.”
—Amélie Frank, Sacred Beverage Press
“My Kidney Just Arrived just might be the most upbeat story of illness, dialysis, and organ transplant you could hope to read. G. Murray Thomas writes with a sense of openness and accessibility that invites all readers to join in the humor, discomfort, uncertainty, and hope of the journey that led him to a second chance at life.”
—Ben Trigg, Two Idiots Peddling Poetry
“If there is anything to be said when first listening to or reading G. Murray Thomas, it is that he is a poet whose voice is honest. In his cadence and in his tone, there is a subtle vibration that allows the listener to relax. Whether they are aware of it or not, they are suddenly at ease.”
—Yvonne de la Vega, Los Angeles Poetry Examiner
“Thomas’ great gift as a poet is his unusual ability to see and be bewildered by the thoroughly weird things that most of us take for granted.”
—Victor Infante, OC Weekly
