Lena: Poems, Hardcover/Cassie Pruyn

Descriere

Cassie Pruyn's Lena asks new questions: why we love, why we grieve. We'veread elegies before, but not like this. A lush and unsparing first book, Lenaasks readers to understand love-crucially, a first love, an erotic love-inthe context not of a love lost but instead of an identity gained: we must considernot only "was she worth it?," but also "who has she made me?" Pruyn lets us feelwhat lovers feel-the magnetism, the physicality, the tenderness, the rage, thewondering-with language both musical and visceral. In these poems, the landscapeis a character in itself; the past is as tangible as the present. Pruyn takes usto the "Lost Love Lounge," we ride in a "car / red as a dragon," and we observethe beloved "stick herself in the belly with a needle" in the way "she used to attachher cufflinks." This is love and grief raised to the highest power; it is a debut notto be missed.