The Dying Poem - Softcover

Budde, Rob

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1552451089 ISBN 13: 9781552451083

Publisher: Coach House Books, 1998

Synopsis

On the afternoon that two tonnes of explosives are set to dismember Toronto's Metropolitan Library, poet Henry Black hides himself away in his favourite wing; when his mangled body is uncovered, there's a book lodged in his chest.

Jay Post, a hapless filmmaker, is hired to chronicle the life, death and writings of the poet. In the process of making his documentary, Jay must try to unravel the threads of Henry's labyrinthine, suicide-obsessed mind with only the poems as tools; he must also contend with two of Henry's sometimes lovers, Luisa, a Mexican violinist, and Dee, a feminist writer now living on a farm in the Annapolis Valley and writing a novel about Catherine the Great.

The Dying Poem will take you through stories within stories in search of the mystery behind Henry's artful suicide. And, in the end, the crossing of paths and the difficulty of speaking about the dead tell us something about the making of art and what art makes of us.

About this title

About the Author:

Rob Budde teaches creative writing at the University of Northern British Columbia. He has published three books: poetry collections Catch as Catch and traffick and the novel Misshapen.

Review:

An extraordinary novel about writing's journey towards its own extinguishment. -- Aritha Van Herk

Budde is in the forefront of the generation of writers whose talent migrates through language and narrative and image. -- Robert Kroetsch

About this edition

• Publisher: Coach House Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 1552451089
• ISBN 13: 9781552451083
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 152