Narcissus Americana: Poems Contributor(s): Mossotti, Travis (Author) |
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ISBN: 1682260550 ISBN-13: 9781682260555 Publisher: University of Arkansas Press OUR PRICE: $16.16 Product Type: Paperback Published: March 2018 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Poetry | American - General |
Dewey: 811.6 |
LCCN: 2017956141 |
Series: Miller Williams Poetry Prize |
Physical Information: 0.3" H x 5.4" W x 8.3" (0.30 lbs) 94 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: Winner, 2018 Miller Williams Poetry Prize Narcissus Americana sings and scraps and wrestles its way across various landscapes--abandoned quarries, art museums, lavish homes, and tar pits--in a quest to attain a more complex vision of what it means to be upwardly mobile. These poems question the usefulness of wealth and ownership as markers of success. Taking wine fridges and fake flowers as emblems of capitalism's failure to assuage human loneliness, the speakers in these poems find joy in shared meals and glasses of wine, and use moments of mutual attention to challenge notions of class in America. Intimacy is on display in "Cruising Altitude," where the speaker finds a sublime communion between two disparate worldviews during an in-flight conversation with his father: I ask if his certainty about humanity's course gives Sharply written, and with an eye for form, these poems engage with heavy inquiry but also know better than to take themselves too seriously, making it possible for, say, dungeons to share space with donuts, as in the poem "Rancho La Brea." Mossotti's timely book invites the reader to traverse America, and see the nation anew, on a journey marked simultaneously by critical scrutiny and deep affection. |