Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
In Luxury, Philip Schultz's incisive poetic voice probes the essential questions of meaning and happiness against the backdrop of family, the routines of daily life, and the exquisite beauty of Cuba and East Hampton, New York. "Luxury," the long poem at the book's core, is a deeply personal study of suicide--Camus's foremost philosophical question--to see how we evaluate the essential worth of our lives.
Using humor, irony, and celebration as ballast against the book's darker forces, Luxury explores the comfort and sustenance of life, the bittersweet clarity of aging, and the anxiety of existence.
FROM "GREED"
Happiness, I used to think,
was a necessary illusion.
Now I think it's just
precious moments of relief
Synopsis
In this compassionate new collection, Philip Schultz's wry and incisive poetic voice takes on both the eternal questions of meaning and happiness and essentially modern complexities--the collective power of women's marches, the strangeness of googling oneself, the refugee crisis, the emotions associated with visiting the 9/11 memorial. At once philosophical and droll, Schultz explores life's luxuries and challenges with masterly precision.
Luxury takes its name from the center poem, which has an ironic ring next to Schultz's Pulitzer Prize-winning collection Failure. The poem is a beautiful exploration of the pull toward life as Schultz examines the question of suicide, intimately probing a familial pull toward that darkness and weaving in the philosophy of Albert Camus and the voices and legacies of Paul Celan and Ernest Hemingway. Using humor, irony, and celebration as ballast against the book's darker forces, Luxury explores the comfort and sustenance of life, the bittersweet clarity of aging, and the anxiety of existence.
From "Greed":
Happiness, I used to think, was a necessary illusion Now I think it's jus precious moments of relie