“I stare at my half-swallowed mediocre son, I stare at my half-swallowed mediocre daughter. I finally think I am living the American Dream. Am I? Did we look like a Swedish family?” – Paul Cunningham, “THE TREE OF SORES”
It’s National Poetry Month! This year, unlike previous years, I am not going to overwhelm myself with projects. No writing a poem a day, no reading Homer, no reading The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You. I am going to work diligently on edits to my manuscript of poems and my novel in verse, and I am going to read two collections of poetry a week. Well, except for the last week, when I am reading a book about sonnets. Oh, and this week, when I am reading three books.
What I’ve Been Reading This Week
Books where I said YES LET’S GO to every wild move. Books that aren’t necessarily full of decisions I’d make as a writer, but that thrill me and I enjoy oh so much. All three of these are massive, massive hits. I had a blast!
The Night Library Of Sternendach by Jessica Lévai: subtitled “A VAMPIRE OPERA IN VERSE.” Yes. YES! My dudes. A vampire opera in sonnets, rhyming fucking sonnets. You know how much yr man the shipwrecked sailor despises rhyming outside of hip-hop, and yet I enthusiastically said YES to every portion of this book. Partially because yr man the shipwrecked sailor has found the idea of being turned into a rich vampire who spends all his time reading appealing since roughly 2005. God, I loved this goofy tome. The more I describe it, the more you’ll be like “you sure?” Reader, I am sure. It’s a star-crossed lovers story, a virginal bookworm dork who happens to be descended from a line of vampire hunters falls in love with an old aristocratic vampire because of his library. In lesser hands, I’d be grousing about how we have to be more creative with our horror concepts, but Jessica is such a good writer who fully committed to this project that I kinda want to see it adapted to the stage and scored. It reads smoothly, the rhymes aren’t intrusive. When the ending came, I was genuinely moved by the plight of the characters, even if I expected what was happening to happen. It takes real skill to tightrope walk all of these elements—meter, rhyme, storytelling, character development, plot—and Lévai absolutely pulls it all off. What an achievement. I love this book.
SOCIOCIDE AT THE 24/7 by Paul Cunningham: I was lucky enough to see Paul read at NEON NIGHT MIC back in January. I wanted one of his books, and I had money for one. Paul, however, is such a nice guy that he gave me a second for free. Lucky me, these books rip. SOCIOCIDE AT THE 24/7 is a frenetic, doomscrolling-as-poetry collage of internetisms, but in a way that doesn’t forget that it’s a poem. I think you’re meant to read all 51 pages relatively fast, because the momentum of the text propelled me to that. There’s music in the cacophony of the internet, if only you let a poet translate it. This book is exhilarating, and the kind of long poem I’d love to see a multi-reader marathon reading of. There is a sea of books pulling from the diction of the internet out there, many of which you can ignore. This is not one of those.
THE HOUSE OF THE TREE OF SORES by Paul Cunningham: would you like to read a book where the speaker is an assistant manager of an IKEA, becomes a father to two children by sort having them happen to him rather than any biological process, and does extended riffs on the Swedish Chef from The Muppets? A book that puns Swedish and English words? A book that’s heavily hard surrealist and yet you always know you’re either in an IKEA or thinking about an IKEA? This one’s for you. It’s incredible. I know Paul counts Aase Berg as a mentor, and the lineage is clear, here. If you haven’t read Swedish surrealism, all I can say is you must.
LINKS!
Something to listen to while you browse? In honor of over-the-top operatic vampire week, here’s my second-favorite favorite AFI song:
- This week in ICE: the U.S. Government, about to start a pointless and unwinnable ground campaign in Iran, is also directing ICE to target family members of Marines, reports Haviz Rashid in The New Republic. Two Young Boys Were Detained by ICE. Then Ms. Rachel Shared Their Stories. by Inae Oh at Mother Jones. Hope things continue to go badly for Todd Lyons—‘Visibly upset and struggling’: Acting ICE head hospitalized twice over stress, officials say by Daniel Lippman at Politico (sorry for the Politico link, honestly, don’t click it, just be happy that Todd Lyons has having a bad time). When ICE Came to Maine, Trans Mainers Fought Back by Evan Urquhart in Assigned Media. Georgia town defies ICE: No water for planned detention warehouse by Lautaro Grinspan in Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Months After Midway Blitz, ICE Activity Has Quietly Persisted by Dave Byrnes in South Side Weekly. State’s Attorney’s Refusal To Drop Charges Against Nonviolent ICE Protesters A ‘Waste’ Of Resources, Some Say by Mina Bloom and Top Cop Refused To Attend Hearing On Whether Police Helped ICE If Experts Joined Panel by Francia Garcia Hernandez in Block Club
- Meant to link this one during Women’s History Month, but it got lost in my phone tabs. She Exposed the Darkest Aspects of American History by Victoria Flexner in The Story Exchange is a primer on Ida B. Wells.
- It’s Time To Kill The Hero by Soleil Ho in Coyote comes in the wake of the Cesar Chavez revelations. Anarchism says no heroes. I’m telling you, even if you can’t bring yourself to identify as an anarchist, you need to be reading anarchists.
- Notes Towards A ‘Woke 2’ by Gita Jackson in Aftermath is a good read on what we can learn from the 2010s, and what we can leave behind.
- I will convert if this happens: Why Some Catholics Want Peter Thiel Burned At The Stake in Universal Life Church Monestary
- BONUS SIXTH LINK: my hometown county, Rutherford County, fired its Library Director this week because she refused to the demands of a bunch of bigoted illiterate losers. Patsy Montesinos at News Channel 5 has the story, using different words than I do. There’s a GoFundMe for Luanne James here.
What’re you still doing here? Want more glam-punk? Here’s some TSOL:
If you work in the service industry, may you clean up in tips this weekend. Remember, sometimes a good library is worth betraying your family for, but being an influencer is not.
Sorry you got an email,
Chris