The collection's cornerstones are two rhapsodies - long poems which combine the richness of a novel, the intimacy of a lyric, and the immediacy of a performance. At the climax of the first, the poet meets his double, a dying boy whose shameful moniker is "Baldie". As if in response to this explosive confrontation, the poet dares to write a second, wilder "Rhapsody" - a confessional, improvisatory fantasia, virtually a book in itself, where abjection blossoms into formally-innovative extravagance. Three sequences complete the collection: "Piano Life", a series of haunted meditations on music and mortality; "Erotic Collectibles", a disarmingly unsentimental account of sexual awakening; and "Star Vehicles", in which the poet sees his perplexities reflected in Bette Davis, Sophia Loren, Ida Lupino, and other leading ladies.
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Summary
The collection's cornerstones are two rhapsodies - long poems which combine the richness of a novel, the intimacy of a lyric, and the immediacy of a performance. At the climax of the first, the poet meets his double, a dying boy whose shameful moniker is "Baldie". As if in response to this explosive confrontation, the poet dares to write a second, wilder "Rhapsody" - a confessional, improvisatory fantasia, virtually a book in itself, where abjection blossoms into formally-innovative extravagance. Three sequences complete the collection: "Piano Life", a series of haunted meditations on music and mortality; "Erotic Collectibles", a disarmingly unsentimental account of sexual awakening; and "Star Vehicles", in which the poet sees his perplexities reflected in Bette Davis, Sophia Loren, Ida Lupino, and other leading ladies.
Description
The collection's cornerstones are two rhapsodies - long poems which combine the richness of a novel, the intimacy of a lyric, and the immediacy of a performance. At the climax of the first, the poet meets his double, a dying boy whose shameful moniker is Baldie. As if in response to this explosive confrontation, the poet dares to write a second, wilder Rhapsody - a confessional, improvisatory fantasia, virtually a book in itself, where abjection blossoms into formally-innovative extravagance. Three sequences complete the collection: Piano Life, a series of haunted meditations on music and mortality; Erotic Collectibles, a disarmingly unsentimental account of sexual awakening; and Star Vehicles, in which the poet sees his perplexities reflected in Bette Davis, Sophia Loren, Ida Lupino, and other leading ladies.
About the Author
Wayne Koestenbaum is Distinguished Professor of Literature at the City University of New York Graduate Center. He is the author of thirteen books of criticism, poetry, and fiction, including a biography of Andy Warhol, and the acclaimed "The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire".
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