Index of Haunted Houses
Adam O. Davis
(Author)
Description
This is a book of ghost stories, and for the most part, ghosts are jealous monsters, intent upon our destruction. They never appear overtly here, yet we gradually become aware of the spirits in haunted houses in the way they tread over creaky floors, slam doors, and issue sudden gusts of wind. These poems are Koan-like--the fewer the words, the more charged they are. The engine driving the sense of haunting and loss is money, which Davis describes as "federal bone" boiling around us. Bison in Nebraska are reduced to bones, "seven/standing men/tall" fodder for the fertilizer used by farmers in the 1800s. There is, too, an equality to the hauntings--every instance has its moment, and persists, despite being in the past, present, or future. Index of Haunted Houses is spooky and sad--a stunning debut, one that will surprise, convince, and most of all, delight.
Product Details
Price
$15.95
$14.83
Publisher
Sarabande Books
Publish Date
September 01, 2020
Pages
72
Dimensions
5.5 X 8.5 X 0.3 inches | 0.3 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9781946448668
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Adam O. Davis' poems have appeared in many journals, including The Believer, Boston Review, Gulf Coast, The Paris Review, The Southern Review, and ZYZZYVA. The recipient of the 2016 George Bogin Award from the Poetry Society of America, he has received grants and fellowships from Columbia University, Western Michigan University, and Vermont Studio Center. A graduate of the University of California, Riverside and Columbia University, he lives in San Diego, California where he teaches English literature at The Bishop's School. He was also once hit by lightning. It felt, more or less, like you'd expect.
Reviews
"15 New and Forthcoming Indie Press Gems," Publishers Weekly
"Versifying / Collection Development: Poetry," Library Journal "A debut collection of prose poetry, Davis tackles themes generally reserved for the annals of genre fiction. Everything from things that go bump in the night to disappearing and destroyed Bison, the pieces actualize how even the worst hauntings, the scariest monsters, carry their own nightmares and doubts."
--"15 New and Forthcoming Indie Press Gems" by Michael Seidlinger, Publishers Weekly "Hypervigilant, fidgety, and frightened as it should be, Index of Haunted Houses nonetheless shows us how to rake through the rubble for what we might still rebuild with, and in its consummate achievement, generates flashes of much heretofore unseen beauty, unleashing phrases that 'arc like / swans in (the) cochlea's / cul-de-sac.'"
--Timothy Donnelly "The reader finds herself in America's afterlife, with Ma Bell's pre-automation telephone operators. This is the elegant lyricism of 'too late, ' calling 'Ladies please wake up. I want to try again.'"
--Rae Armantrout "Adam O. Davis has written a brilliant book about our ghosts--personal, political, mythic, lyrical, and yet very real. He documents and chronicles the musics of the unsaid, melodies unheard. There is America in these pages and there is also childhood, parenthood, a rhythm and nuance of being. I love this music."
--Ilya Kaminsky "From 'the body of New Jersey' to 'the desert/like a house of belief, ' the poems of Index of Haunted Houses traverse the entirety of time and space that we call American. In this book, Adam O. Davis means for language as precise as 'ledgers lavish with loss, ' to lead us to the place within us where history meets landscape. This is a brilliant debut."
--Jericho Brown "Time and again I was pulled in, kept close to the collisions between the self and the passage of time which populate the poems. The beauty of the language engenders intimacy. The reader easily steps into the text. The wonderful imagination of this poet reminds us the mind--lyric space--is an astonishing nexus."
--Eduardo C. Corral
"Versifying / Collection Development: Poetry," Library Journal "A debut collection of prose poetry, Davis tackles themes generally reserved for the annals of genre fiction. Everything from things that go bump in the night to disappearing and destroyed Bison, the pieces actualize how even the worst hauntings, the scariest monsters, carry their own nightmares and doubts."
--"15 New and Forthcoming Indie Press Gems" by Michael Seidlinger, Publishers Weekly "Hypervigilant, fidgety, and frightened as it should be, Index of Haunted Houses nonetheless shows us how to rake through the rubble for what we might still rebuild with, and in its consummate achievement, generates flashes of much heretofore unseen beauty, unleashing phrases that 'arc like / swans in (the) cochlea's / cul-de-sac.'"
--Timothy Donnelly "The reader finds herself in America's afterlife, with Ma Bell's pre-automation telephone operators. This is the elegant lyricism of 'too late, ' calling 'Ladies please wake up. I want to try again.'"
--Rae Armantrout "Adam O. Davis has written a brilliant book about our ghosts--personal, political, mythic, lyrical, and yet very real. He documents and chronicles the musics of the unsaid, melodies unheard. There is America in these pages and there is also childhood, parenthood, a rhythm and nuance of being. I love this music."
--Ilya Kaminsky "From 'the body of New Jersey' to 'the desert/like a house of belief, ' the poems of Index of Haunted Houses traverse the entirety of time and space that we call American. In this book, Adam O. Davis means for language as precise as 'ledgers lavish with loss, ' to lead us to the place within us where history meets landscape. This is a brilliant debut."
--Jericho Brown "Time and again I was pulled in, kept close to the collisions between the self and the passage of time which populate the poems. The beauty of the language engenders intimacy. The reader easily steps into the text. The wonderful imagination of this poet reminds us the mind--lyric space--is an astonishing nexus."
--Eduardo C. Corral
