Gardening Sale!
 
 

Special Offers see all

Enter to WIN!

Weekly drawing for $100 credit. Subscribe to our Specials newsletter for a chance to win.
Privacy Policy

More at Powell's

Recently Viewed clear list

Guests | May 6, 2013

Benjamin Percy: IMG The Roof People

1 comment By Benjamin Percy

My sister slept with the light on until she was 27. She rightfully blames me. I would leap out of closets with my hands made into claws. I would... Continue »
  1. $18.19 Sale Hardcover add to wish list

    Red Moon

    Benjamin Percy 9781455501663
spacer
Ships free on qualified orders.
$39.99
New Loose Leaf
Ships in 1 to 3 days
Add to Wishlist
Qty Store Section
19 Local Warehouse Poetry- A to Z

More copies of this ISBN

Nox

by

Nox Cover

ISBN13: 9780811218702
ISBN10: 0811218708
All Product Details

 

Awards

Staff Top 5s 2010 2010 Powell's Staff Top 5s
The Rooster 2011 Morning News Tournament of Books Nominee
back to top

Review-A-Day

"Anne Carson calls herself a maker of things. That has never been plainer than with this so-called 'poem' (a Greek-derived word meaning 'a thing made'). A unique assemblage of bits of conversation, letters, postmarked stamps, memories, cut-up photographs, drawings, paint, staples, etc., Nox is here replicated as one long accordion foldout in a clamshell box. Carson says: 'I had a need to gather up the shards of his story and make it into something containable.' The visual art of this extraordinary new book, with scissors-and-paste used to powerful effect, adds layers of expression to its dazzling verbal art." Mark Gustafson, Rain Taxi (read the entire Rain Taxi review)

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

Nox is an epitaph in the form of a book, a facsimile of a handmade book Anne Carson wrote and created after the death of her brother. The poem describes coming to terms with his loss through the lens of her translation of "Poem 101" by Catullus for his brother who died in the Troad.

is a work of poetry, but arrives as a fascinating and unique physical object. Carson pasted old letters, family photos, collages and sketches on pages. The poems, typed on a computer, were added to this illustrated book creating a visual and reading experience so amazing as to open up our concept of poetry.

Review:

"In order to discuss Carson's latest work — a foldout, Jacob's ladder collage of letters, photographs, and poetry, all housed in a beautiful box — one must first address its resistance to being addressed. Rather, what Carson does (and with furious precision) is impress upon us her grief over a life she cannot recapture — for Carson, this life is her brother's, for whom this collection is both an elegy and a history. What results is a work of astonishing candor, in which Carson manages to define the elegy anew by exploring the lacunae of her brother's life. 'It is when you are asking about something,' she writes, 'that you realize you have survived it, and so you must carry it, or fashion it into a thing that carries itself.' Carson accomplishes just that, creating a physical record of a life in the form of a book that allows its fragments to carry her brother's absence. To call this art object extraordinary — more than a book, it's a reproduction of a scroll Carson made by hand — would be to understate. What Carson has given us is an act of devotion of such integrity that it carries its grief on its back." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Synopsis:

Anne Carson's haunting and beautiful Nox is her first book of poetry in five years — a unique, illustrated, accordion-fold-out "book in a box."

Synopsis:

Anne Carson's haunting and beautiful Nox is her first book of poetry in five years--a unique, illustrated, accordion-fold-out "book in a box."

Synopsis:

Nox is an epitaph in the form of a book, a facsimile of a handmade book Anne Carson wrote and created after the death of her brother. The poem describes coming to terms with his loss through the lens of her translation of Poem 101 by Catullus "for his brother who died in the Troad." Nox is a work of poetry, but arrives as a fascinating and unique physical object. Carson pasted old letters, family photos, collages and sketches on pages. The poems, typed on a computer, were added to this illustrated "book" creating a visual and reading experience so amazing as to open up our concept of poetry.
back to top

About the Author

Anne Carson was born in Canada and teaches ancient Greek for a living. Her awards and honors include the Lannan Award, the Pushcart Prize, the Griffin Trust Award for Excellence in Poetry, a Guggenheim fellowship, and the MacArthur "Genius" Award.
back to top

What Our Readers Are Saying

Add a comment for a chance to win!
Average customer rating based on 5 comments:
rooze, January 1, 2013 (view all comments by rooze)
An elegy, an exploration, a seeking, an unconventional epitaph: Nox collects Anne Carson's fragments of photographs, notes, working translation (and discussion) of Catullus' poem #101, letters, envelopes and other pieces into a singular work pivoting on the death of her brother, Michael. Carson meticulously submerges the reader into the experience of grief, the process of mourning, and the struggle to find a way to communicate when language itself would not suffice. Like many liminal works, Nox informs the reader how to approach it based on its own presentation: containing a scroll, one long work, Nox is meant to be navigated, to unfold; the use of space is a reflection of the muteness of Carson's relationship with her brother; the running translation of the Latin poem is an act of translating grief into language and a reflection of the limitations of language to capture it. Nox is a deeply moving and multifaceted work, one that provides deeper appreciation upon each rereading.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(1 of 2 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Sulpicia, September 1, 2011 (view all comments by Sulpicia)
This "book," which I place in quotation marks because it not strictly speaking a book, is incredible. It is, rather, a box with an accordion-like visual-and-prose poem and at the same time, an associative reading of Catullus 101. The Catullus poem is beautiful, as is Anne Carson's work. While being a poem and a journey in grief, she calls it an "epitaph," it is also a character study and a postmodern novel; the readers must flesh out the complicated lives of the characters through (often literal) fragments of letters and cryptic thoughts scrawled across the pages. It is an engaging read which develops a sort of ethos of sadness as well as a spirit inquiry. I highly recommend it.
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(2 of 3 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
Floyce M. Alexander, January 28, 2011 (view all comments by Floyce M. Alexander)
Anne Carson is a kind of Coltrane of poetry--she loves to experiment and rarely if ever attempts the same kind of book twice. In addition, she renders some of the most readable (much less playable) English versions of Sappho, Catullus (here), Aeschylus, Euripides . . . NOX is an unrepeatable book--its materials ensure its form as sui generis. More important is the passion, the love, the grieving, the healing of mourning . . .
Was this comment helpful? | Yes | No
(5 of 10 readers found this comment helpful)
report this comment
View all 5 comments
back to top

Product Details

ISBN:
9780811218702
Author:
Carson, Anne
Publisher:
New Directions Publishing Corporation
Subject:
American - General
Subject:
Epitaphs
Subject:
Single Author / American
Subject:
Poetry-A to Z
Publication Date:
20100431
Binding:
LOOSE LEAF
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Illustrations:
50 color and black-and-white prints
Pages:
192
Dimensions:
8 x 5 x 1 in
back to top

Other books you might like

  1. Bird Lovers, Backyard Used Trade Paper $9.00
  2. Versed Used Hardcover $15.95
  3. The Summer Book (New York Review...
    Used Trade Paper $8.00
back to top

Related Subjects

Featured Titles » Morning News Tournament » 2011
Fiction and Poetry » Poetry » A to Z

Nox New Loose Leaf
0 stars - 0 reviews
$39.99 In Stock
Product details 192 pages New Directions Publishing Corporation - English 9780811218702 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "In order to discuss Carson's latest work — a foldout, Jacob's ladder collage of letters, photographs, and poetry, all housed in a beautiful box — one must first address its resistance to being addressed. Rather, what Carson does (and with furious precision) is impress upon us her grief over a life she cannot recapture — for Carson, this life is her brother's, for whom this collection is both an elegy and a history. What results is a work of astonishing candor, in which Carson manages to define the elegy anew by exploring the lacunae of her brother's life. 'It is when you are asking about something,' she writes, 'that you realize you have survived it, and so you must carry it, or fashion it into a thing that carries itself.' Carson accomplishes just that, creating a physical record of a life in the form of a book that allows its fragments to carry her brother's absence. To call this art object extraordinary — more than a book, it's a reproduction of a scroll Carson made by hand — would be to understate. What Carson has given us is an act of devotion of such integrity that it carries its grief on its back." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review A Day" by , "Anne Carson calls herself a maker of things. That has never been plainer than with this so-called 'poem' (a Greek-derived word meaning 'a thing made'). A unique assemblage of bits of conversation, letters, postmarked stamps, memories, cut-up photographs, drawings, paint, staples, etc., Nox is here replicated as one long accordion foldout in a clamshell box. Carson says: 'I had a need to gather up the shards of his story and make it into something containable.' The visual art of this extraordinary new book, with scissors-and-paste used to powerful effect, adds layers of expression to its dazzling verbal art." Mark Gustafson, Rain Taxi (read the entire Rain Taxi review)
"Synopsis" by , Anne Carson's haunting and beautiful Nox is her first book of poetry in five years — a unique, illustrated, accordion-fold-out "book in a box."
"Synopsis" by , Anne Carson's haunting and beautiful Nox is her first book of poetry in five years--a unique, illustrated, accordion-fold-out "book in a box."
"Synopsis" by , Nox is an epitaph in the form of a book, a facsimile of a handmade book Anne Carson wrote and created after the death of her brother. The poem describes coming to terms with his loss through the lens of her translation of Poem 101 by Catullus "for his brother who died in the Troad." Nox is a work of poetry, but arrives as a fascinating and unique physical object. Carson pasted old letters, family photos, collages and sketches on pages. The poems, typed on a computer, were added to this illustrated "book" creating a visual and reading experience so amazing as to open up our concept of poetry.
spacer
spacer
  • back to top
Follow us on...




Powell's City of Books is an independent bookstore in Portland, Oregon, that fills a whole city block with more than a million new, used, and out of print books. Shop those shelves — plus literally millions more books, DVDs, and eBooks — here at Powells.com.