Synopses & Reviews
In this moving lyric memoir, Mark Rudman explores his close but often fractious relationship with his mother, and presents a companion volume to his award-winning book, Rider, which concerned his relationship with his rabbi stepfather.
Sundays on the Phone centers on the poet's weekly Sunday morning phone calls from his mother, and builds on the verse narrative that defines Rudmans unique role in 21st century poetry. These dialogues, both real and imagined, as well as the surrounding poems, are attuned to the emotional reverberations in every exchange between mother and son. We witness both the brutal tensions in their relationship and their wit and passion. From the first pages, in which Rudman revisits his childhood and his memories of adjusting to his mother's second marriage, to the final pages, in which he slowly comes to terms with his mother's death, this is a compassionate, compelling portrait.
Sundays on the Phone is the final volume in the "Rider Quintet" by Mark Rudman, which also includes Rider, The Millenium Hotel, Provoked in Venice, and The Couple.
Review
"Sundays on the Phone is moving and vivid, also brilliantly witty and ingenious in its employment of the dialogue form that Rudman has been reinventing with such originality over the past decade." James Lasdun, author of Landscape with Chainsaw
Synopsis
Explores the poet's close but often fractious relationship with his mother. Builds on the verse narrative that defines Rudman's unique role in 21st century poetry.Explores the poet's close but often fractious relationship with his mother. Builds on the verse narrative that defines Rudman's unique role in 21st century poetry.
About the Author
Mark Rudman received the National Book Critics Circle Award for Rider (1994). He teaches poetry at New York University.