Poetry | Raging Biblio-holism

Grief is the Thing with Feathers

January 18, 2017 by Drew

The Short Version: After death of his wife, a Ted Hughes scholar receives a visitor in the form of Crow. The husband and his two sons, along with their guest, attempt to navigate this new motherless world and discover what grief truly is. The Review: I have never lost, not truly. High school friends have died tragically, grandmothers passed decade(s) ago after long and vibrant lives, dogs (best friends, in their way) have gone to the endless fields, cultural icons who inspired […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature, Poetry • Tags: Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Crow, Fiction, Grief, Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Literature, Max Porter, Poetry, Prose Poetry, review, Reviews, Ted Hughes, The Tournament of Books 2017

The Argonauts

December 14, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Part memoir, part theory exploration, part prose-poem, part theory creation – The Argonauts is the story of Maggie Nelson’s courtship with and marriage to Harry Dodge, her pregnancy, a country’s evolving mind on gender and sexuality, and a look at the theory that has created a single human’s worldview. The Review: There is such a joy in discovering something to be not only worthy of the hype, but worthy of continued generation of that hype. So it is with […]

Categories: Essays, Memoir, Non-Fiction, Poetry • Tags: 6, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, BookClub, Books, Essays, Favorites, Feminism, Gender Theory, Maggie Nelson, Memoir, Non-Fiction, Philosophy, Queer Theory, review, Reviews, The Argonauts, Theory

Roundup, October 2016

October 31, 2016 by Drew

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn 3 out of 5 The Short Version: A young woman on the margins, working as a fraudulent psychic, lands a gig investigating a creepy house and creepy child for another woman. What ensues is a classic gothic battle for sanity. The Review: Flynn’s voice is unmistakeable and it was great to hear it again, seeing as it’s been awhile since Gone Girl and we’re likely to have to wait a while longer yet for her next […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Literature, Mystery, Non-Fiction, Poetry • Tags: A Head Full of Ghosts, A Thousand Mornings, A Visit to October Country, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Contagion, Dana I. Wolff, Disease, Exorcism, Fiction, Gillian Flynn, Heidi Julavits, Horror, Literature, Mary Oliver, Metafiction, Mikhail Bulgakov, North Brother Island, Novella, Paul Tremblay, Peace, Poetry, Psychics, Religion, Review Roundup, Reviews, Roundup, Russia, Speculative, Stalin, The Devil, The Grownup, The Master and Margarita, The Prisoner of Hell Gate, The Vanishers, Thriller, Typhoid Mary

The Hatred of Poetry

June 15, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Why do so many people hate poetry, or at least claim that they do? What is it, through history, that has caused a disconnect between the idea of poetry as perhaps the most noble of art forms… and the reality of its crushing inadequacy? Ben Lerner, a noted poet in his own right, believes that it may be part of poetry’s essence: that there will always be an impossible gap between a poem’s goal and its actual […]

Categories: Essays, Non-Fiction, Poetry • Tags: Ben Lerner, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Essay, Essays, FSG Originals, Monograph, Non-Fiction, Philosophy, Poetry, Reviews, The Hatred of Poetry

Ban en Banlieue

February 24, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Bhanu Kapil’s exploration of the absence of a novel she had planned to write – the spaces around the edges of story, the place where performance cannot be captured in text, the research and preparation for a story not told here… except also told in outline, a negative of a story. The Review: The wonderful thing about the Tournament of Books is that it puts literature in front of me that I might never otherwise encounter or experience. Having […]

Categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry • Tags: ban en banlieue, Bhanu Kapil, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, London, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Reviews, Semi-Fiction, The Tournament of Books 2016, Writing

US(a.)

December 14, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: A new collection of poetry, essays, and script excerpts from one of our most fiery and passionate artists on the general theme of America, both now and then. The Review: I discovered Saul Williams in 2007 when Trent Reznor helped produce his phenomenal The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust and they gave it away as a pay-what-you-can sort of deal – this was immediately post-In Rainbows – and I had my mind blown the first time the needle dropped. This is […]

Categories: Non-Fiction, Poetry • Tags: America, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Current Events, Essays, Fiction, France, Memoir, Miles Davis, Non-Fiction, Paris, Poetry, Politics, Racism, Reviews, Saul Williams, Scripts, US (a.), USA

Citizen: An American Lyric

June 3, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Blending prose and poetry, image and text, Claudia Rankine delves into the everyday experience of racism – microaggressions suffered by heroes and ordinary people both – and paints a chilling picture of America (and the world) today. The Review: I’ve taken to marking with post-its the poetry that I read. It’s easier to flip back through and find the pieces you really loved, you know? Citizen, for several reasons, was marked with those long skinny post-it tabs and […]

Categories: Memoir, Non-Fiction, Poetry • Tags: America, American Life, An American Lyric, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Citizen, Citizen: An American Lyric, Claudia Rankine, Essays, Gender, Graywolf Press, Non-Fiction, Poetry, Politics, Race, Racism, Reviews, Rodney King, Trayvon Martin

Dark Sparkler

April 15, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: A collection of poems musing on the lives and, in most cases, deaths of actresses – both famous and unknown. It’s also one individual actress musing on fame, life, and art. The Review: I’ve never been to Los Angeles, but I’ve seen it. Read about it in books – Less Than Zero set any desire I might’ve had back by several years – but those images, too, are forever influenced by the washed out darkness of Collateral or Mulholland Drive. […]

Categories: Non-Fiction, Poetry • Tags: Actresses, Amber Tamblyn, Art, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Brittany Murphy, Dark Sparkler, David Lynch, Harper Perennial, Hollywood, Marilyn Manson, Poems, Poetry, Reviews

The Second Sex

March 30, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: A dash of high culture, a splash of low, shaken and stirred and probably tossed out for a shot of Jagermeister anyway – that’s a Michael Robbins poem. Michael Jackson, drones, rock ‘n’ roll, movies, politics, personality, and more blend together for a weird and often bracing ride. The Review: Because of some things I’m doing at work, I flipped ahead in this collection to a poem called “A Poem for President Drone”. Halfway through the 16 line […]

Categories: Non-Fiction, Poetry • Tags: A Poem for President Drone, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Michael Robbins, Poetry, Reviews, The Second Sex

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books

Category Archives: Poetry