Synopses & Reviews
Many of the poems in Glyn Maxwell's brilliant new collection explore American life and history. An Englishman who lived five years in Massachusetts, Maxwell watches fairs and floods and beggars pass by; he tries to understand gridiron and the ever-lengthening Halloween season. Some of these poems concern the harmful and the harmed: school shooters and terrorists on the one hand, victims and refugees on the other -- a girl accused of witchcraft; families made homeless, knowing "none in heaven or earth with any stake/in stopping it"; and the Californian "wild child" Genie. In a zone between are the harmlessly bewildered: a man who holds his own funeral, a TV weatherman wishing for hurricanes, women writing love letters to men on Death Row.
Maxwell's first new collection since The Breakage (1999), this succession of lyrics and narratives captures the strangeness and splendor of America, its thin layer of normality, its historical origins in flight, longing, and trust in providence. Beyond the cultural context of these poems is an incisive and compassionate portrait of the human animal in the twenty-first century. The Nerve is a haunting, powerful book that strikes deep beneath the surface of daily life, "like a spell or a code that unlocks a safe" (P. N. Review).
Review
'\"This new collection applies Maxwell\'s fluent gifts to his recent years in America . . . the especially accomplished final poem offers a set of deft off-rhymes . . .\"'
Review
"This new collection applies Maxwell's fluent gifts to his recent years in America . . . the especially accomplished final poem offers a set of deft off-rhymes . . ." Publishers Weekly
"Maxwell is an intelligent and sensitive writer, and THE NERVE is one of the most enjoyable books of the year." --David Orr The New York Times Book Review
An intelligent, sensitive writer, moving confidently toward expressions of common feeling.
The New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
A haunting and powerful collection, The Nerve captures the strangeness and splendor of America in the twenty-first century. Glyn Maxwell's characters include FBI agents, the Californian "wild child" Genie, a man who holds his own funeral, and women writing love letters to men on Death Row. From college football games to television weather reports, from hayrides to hunting tragedies, Maxwell's brilliant lyrics and narratives explore American life and legend.
About the Author
Glyn Maxwell is the author of nine books of poetry, including, most recently, The Sugar Mile. He is also a dramatist whose
Table of Contents
CONTENTS The Sea Comes in Like Nothing but the Sea, 1 The Nerve, 2 Haunted Hayride, 4 The Man Who Held His Funeral, 6 Gatekeepers on Dana, 8 One of the Splendours, 9 Today, 10 A Winter Evening, 11 Blindfold, 12 Refugees in Massachusetts, 14 The Year in Pictures, 16 Farm Animals Are Childhood, 17 A Hunting Man, 18 Chartreuse, 20 A Promise, 21 Two Breaths, 22 A Childs Love Song, 23 Island Painting, St. Lucia, 24 The Paving Stones, 27 The Only Work, 28 The Poem Recalls the Poet, 29 The Weather Guy, 30 An Earthly Cause, 32 The Alumni, 34 The Leonids, 36 Stopit and Nomore, 37 Likes and Dislikes, 38 Crow and Calf and Dog, 39 The Game Alone, 40 The Fair That Always Comes, 44 The Flood Towns, 46 Chile, 48 Love Letters for Cell 10, 49 Burning Song, 50 Colorado Morning, 51 The Strictures of What Was, 52 The Surnames, 53 Playground Song, 54 The Stop at Amherst, 55 The Snow Village, 58