Heir to the democratic and poetic sensibilities of Walt Whitman and
Allen Ginsberg, Charles Bernstein has always crafted verse that responds
to its historical moment, but no previous collection of his poems so
specifically addresses the events of its time as Girly Man,
whichfeatures works written on the evening of September 11, 2001, and in
response to the war in Iraq. Here, Bernstein speaks out, combining
self-deprecating humor with incisive philosophical and political
thinking.
Composed of works of very different forms and moods--etchings from
moments of acute crisis, comic excursions, formal excavations,
confrontations with the cultural illogics of contemporary political
consciousness--the poems work as an ensemble, each part contributing
something necessary to an unrealizable and unrepresentable whole.
A passionate defense of contingency, resistance, and multiplicity,
Girly Man is a provocative and aesthetically challenging collection of
radical verse from one of America's most controversial poets.
"A major achievement. . . . Anyone interested in contemporary poetry
should seek out the collection, if only to read one of our most
provocative poet-critics writing his most engaging poems to
date."--Thomas Devaney, PhiladelphiaInquirer "Charles Bernstein writes
both prose and poetry about poetry, sometimes brilliantly, in ways
calculated to upset the middlebrow and thwart the bland. The more you
like the poetic equivalent of a nice tune, easy to hum, the more
Bernstein means to disrupt your complacency."--Robert Pinsky,
Washington Post
