Synopsis
Book by Berkson, Bill
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Reviews
This ample, handsome and invaluable collection catches Berkson at his rhythmically impeccable best, a serene master of the syntactical sleight, transforming the mundane into the marvelous. In dreams indistinguishable from learned discourses, domestic scenes charted with patient hilarity and memory pieces rendered with uncanny precision and fast-paced immediacy (like an Astaire dance sequence), Berkson's artifice is glimpsed through the astonishing absence of mistakes. Whether condensed to a few lines, as in "Familiar Music," "Star Motel" or "Stamina," or unleashed at 25-page stretches, as in the brilliant "Start Over" (as worthy a companion to O'Hara's "Second Avenue" and Schuyler's "Hymn to Life" as the past quarter-century has produced), the poems gathered here have a windfallen pattern that lasts only as long as it must, then scatters again into the mess of sensation from which it issued: "Today they went away to stay/ Furnishings deranged like looks in instant photographs/ One frame we squabble, next we sweetly mend/ Cooling heels entwined on a daybed,/ Seemingly refreshed" ("You Sure Do Some Nice Things"). In light of their original composition dates, these works will no doubt be read as further evidence of the aesthetic cross-fertilization between "late" New York School writing and the Language-centered avant-garde of the '70s and '80s. Beyond such documentary value, the volume retains a jubilant contemporaneity and a dazzling verbal wit : within its pages, "anyone can anything anytime." The late artist and author Joe Brainard contributes five previously unpublished drawings. (Apr.)
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Search results for Serenade
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Serenade: Poetry and Prose 1975-1989
Published by
Zoland Books, Cambridge, MA, 2000
ISBN 10: 1581950160
ISBN 13: 9781581950168
Used
Soft cover
First Edition
Signed
Seller: Albion Books, Buffalo, NY, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Soft cover. Condition: Very Good. Joe Brainard (illustrator). 1st Edition. Flat-signed by author to half title page. Glossy pictorial wraps with minor edgewear and rubbing. Binding sound, spine not creased, interior clean. No prev owner names, stickers or stamps. Not ex-library. 125 pp. Signed by Author(s). Seller Inventory # 003444
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Serenade
Seller: Orca Knowledge Systems, Inc., Novato, CA, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
paperback. Condition: Very Good. Signed. First Edition. Signed by the author and inscribed on the half title page: To Bill Wiley and Mary Hull Webster in admiration and thanks for midday joys. Bill Berkson August 30, 2004. Unread. No markings in book. Binding is fine. Foxing to top page edges. 125pp. Seller Inventory # mon0000032501
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Serenade
Seller: HPB-Diamond, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
paperback. Condition: Very Good. Connecting readers with great books since 1972! Used books may not include companion materials, and may have some shelf wear or limited writing. We ship orders daily and Customer Service is our top priority! Seller Inventory # S_458139204
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Serenade
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
Paperback. Condition: As New. No Jacket. Pages are clean and are not marred by notes or folds of any kind. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G1581950160I2N00