Category Archives: book review

Dream Song Strategies

Posted on February 1, 2024 by Mark Kerstetter

Over the coming few weeks I will be sharing my love of John Berryman’s The Dream Songs, a book I have been dipping into from the time I was a teenager, one of the first and most impactful books of … Continue reading →

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For the Sake of Darkling Playfulness: Michael Brodsky’s “Invidicum” Part Three

Posted on November 30, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

Packet Five: The aesthetics/ethics dyad I want now to produce a two-headed packet; it really needs two heads, trust me (by the way, this is not the first time Invidicum has recalled for me Brodsky’s novel Dyad, but I digress). … Continue reading →

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Consciousness as a Sledgehammer: Michael Brodsky’s “Invidicum” Part Two

Posted on November 30, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

Packet Two: The art of fiction is a weird activity Because Henry James and weirdness were issued on the same breath the Rubicon has brought us successfully to Packet Two. Borges thought James’ The Abasement of the Northmores one of … Continue reading →

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Michael Brodsky’s “Invidicum” Part One

Posted on November 30, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

I am at a loss how to begin a “review” of Michael Brodsky’s astonishing opus Invidicum (published by Tough Poets Press and illustrated by the great Michael Hafftka), not only because I’ve never read anything like it (apart, that is, … Continue reading →

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Maurice Blanchot’s ‘The Experience of Lautréamont’

Posted on August 9, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

My slumbers—if I slumber—are not sleep, But a continuance of enduring thought…. The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life. —Lord Byron, Manfred Maurice Blanchot’s book Lautréamont and Sade (“Sade’s Reason” followed by the much longer essay, “The Experience … Continue reading →

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Wallace Fowlie’s Lautréamont

Posted on August 8, 2023 by Mark Kerstetter

Parle, et, puisque, d’après tes vœux les plus chers, l’on ne souffrirait pas, dis en quoi consisterait alors la vertu, idéal que chacun s’efforce d’atteindre, si ta langue est faite comme celle des autres hommes. —Comte de Lautréamont, Les Chants … Continue reading →

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Agamben on Twilight

Posted on November 22, 2022 by Mark Kerstetter

Twilight As the weight of day bears down and night’s promise advances, memory and loss in equal shares emerge in a standoff. Will and fancy, knowledge and flight become unlikely workmates and vision pushes focus against the last flakes of silver backing … Continue reading →

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Robert Vaughan’s Askew

Posted on April 8, 2022 by Mark Kerstetter

ASKEW: not in a straight or level position: her hat was slightly askew | the door was hanging askew on one twisted hinge. wrong; awry: the plan went sadly askew | the judging was a bit askew. I probably know … Continue reading →

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The most interesting book I read this year

Posted on December 14, 2021 by Mark Kerstetter

was published in 1979: The Sadeian Woman by Angela Carter. I’ve been a fan of hers ever since I stumbled upon a copy of The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman in a used bookstore many years ago. The Sadeian … Continue reading →

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Henry’s Fate

Posted on December 8, 2021 by Mark Kerstetter

Today I’m going to read a few Dream Songs by John Berryman from among the forty-five included in the book Henry’s Fate. The poems of Henry’s Fate were selected by Berryman’s biographer, John Haffenden, and the book was published in … Continue reading →

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