Reviews
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Visual Tweets, published on the University of Texas Visual Rhetoric blog
Minute by Minute with #Micropoetry, posted on the Bedford St. Martin's teaching poetry blog
On The Beautiful Sea
by Nick Courage
$10, shipping included, from a mutual respect books & music
the machismo of american letters has a long and turgid history, which - coupled with the currently popular literary trifecta of overdone irony, cloying sweetness, and trump card gravitas - usually leaves me on the defensive. to be touched by an author in the oprah age is to be violated... and so i've noticed that the temptation, when reviewers try to talk about a book they've enjoyed, is two pronged: either unveil the smoke and mirrors, denying themselves the simple pleasure of an uninvestigated read, or hyperbolize: powerful, sinuous prose; flirtations with overarching truths; socially relevant and attention demanding - how else could a novel penetrate our media-jaded consciousness if not forcibly by an author-god? no need to name names; you all know these authors and their various flags, have been directed to their blogs via Gawker or the Times Online.
not so with ON THE BEAUTIFUL SEA, a collection of intertwined short stories in which the ebbing and flowing narrator evinces an unpresuming, emotable fragility - a vulnerability that steers clear of solipsism, instead reaching gently outward, rubbing the back of the inner-artist we all guard so preciously. having set aside the ego that characterizes our contemporary literary milieu, ON THE BEAUTIFUL SEA asks us not for adulation, but for self reflection. and it's not twee about it either - this is a kunslerroman (an artist's coming of age story) that self-immolates as it assuages, affording the reader some mitigated hope and beatitude even as the narrative unravels. but perhaps this is too strong an assessment, one i'm sure the author would contest.
at base, ON THE BEAUTIFUL SEA is like the soundtrack to the last movie that left you smiling with tears dried on your cheeks - at its best, it's made you feel without you even realizing it. or, better, fullmer's quietly transcendent moments are ineffable, like the homesickness of the silhouettes on Keat's grecian urn, on some museum pedestal and wondering what's happened.
my favorite is probably "what's a novena?", but "girl in the park" really proved Fullmer's reach as a writer. five stars.
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Mark, this was a provocative
Mark, this was a provocative discussion. I suppose as devil's advocate I would be less enthusiastic about some of the points you made, such as the reconceptualizing of knowledge. I think of the Atlantic Monthly cover article a few months back with the lovely title "Is Google Making Us Stoopid?"
Perhaps in the panel in June this might be what I should be doing: asking the philosopher's questions about the implications of Web 2.0.
WOWZERS, James's brother...
WOWZERS, James's brother... you have such a talented singing voice! And your Mandarin is excellent! As a native speaker of the Chinese language, I am very impressed. Mad props to you! :D
Ah, libraries.
Ah, libraries.
That's a cool thing.
That's a cool thing.
awesome.
awesome.