Poetry. Italian American Studies. Women's Studies. At the core of this elegantly crafted book is a riveting cautionary tale about heartbreak, disaffection, and visceral family dysfunction that soars to agonizing life as a result of the poet's precise and startling language. Set against a largely dystopic landscape of 'bursting gamma rays, rogue asteroids...and latent nuclear fiascos, ' AND NOT TO BREAK is chock-full of 'weird surprises' and unpredictable syntactical energy. Beware, most of all, Sylvester's exhilarating hyphenated adjectives that pack a psychological and intellectual wallop.--Peter Covin