Because the Brain Can Be Talked into Anything: Poems

Richman, Jan

ISBN 10: 0807119946 / ISBN 13: 9780807119945

Published by Louisiana State Univ Pr (edition First Edition), 1995

About this Item

The item might be beaten up but readable. May contain markings or highlighting, as well as stains, bent corners, or any other major defect, but the text is not obscured in any way.

Seller Inventory # 0807119946-7-1-13

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Because the Brain Can Be Talked into Anything: Poems
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr (edition First Edition)
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0807119946
• ISBN 13: 9780807119945
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Fair

About this title

Synopsis

In selecting this dazzling first collection of poems as winner of the 1994 Walt Whitman Award, Robert Pinsky praised Jan Richman for the "rowdy, restless intelligence" of her work. Indeed, all of the poems in Because the Brain Can Be Talked Into Anything are the result of a compulsive, unflinching inquisitiveness - a desire to make some sense of modern life by scrutinizing the paradoxes and contradictions inherent in our world.
Ultimately, among the surprising turns of language, the hard edges and twisted aphorisms of an outspoken narrator, the sense of personal history re-emerges as haunting and essential. The book offers no formula for self-knowledge; it winnows and rummages and, finally, finds truth in irony. This satiric/sincere dualism comes brilliantly through in "Why I'm the Boss".
As in all Richman's poems, the wise-cracking, urban-hip tone gives way to an extremely personal world view, and the raw emotional underpinnings are finally revealed. These poems announce a fresh and powerful new voice.

About the Author

Jan Richman 's poems have appeared in The Nation, Ploughshares, the Bloomsbury Review, and many other journals. She has received the Felix Pollack Poetry Prize, a Discovery/The Nation Award, and the Celia B. Wagner Award. She lives in San Francisco.