Rachel Kushner - 'Telex From Cuba'

First thing I've read by Kushner. It was highly acclaimed in 2008 when it was released and a finalist for the National Book Award. Naturally, I was skeptical, but every bit of praise for this book is well deserved. The story follows multiple characters in Cuba leading up to the revolution of 1959 which found the US backed Batista overthrown by Fidel Castro. The book reveals tensions between the Cubans that worked in the sugar cane fields run by US expats...sorry, US *immigrants*. Much of the perspectives are through the children of these wealthy families, often having fled the US for various legal reasons, or have lived a life in limbo throughout various Latin and Central American countries.

Kushner's writing fulfills all of the senses. Not a scene passes without her describing the various smells and sounds of the country and its people, about the myriad colors that lend themselves to the landscape. There are lyrical flourishes on every page, such as "the wind gusted like a personality" or "it was an afternoon of time outside of time."

But these subtle flourishes don't allow themselves to dominate the story either. Each character, whether the naive children, drunk housewives, a cabaret dancer, Cuban militants, or a secretive French agitator, are fully formed with reflective, philosophical thoughts bubbling throughout the narrative. Of course, some characters are more receptive to these philosophical inquiries than others that would rather deny the painful truths, and the impending revolution about to take place.

Michael Robbins, 'Alien Vs. Predator'

I finally got around to reading Michael Robbins' poetry collection, 'Alien Vs. Predator'. I'm familiar with Robbins who taught a class I took on Romantic Poetry four years ago at Columbia. He knew a fuckton about poetry, as well as hip-hop and metal; he looked like a guy that would know a fuckton more about poetry than he did hip-hop and metal.

His own poetry is quite absurd. Lots of plays on words, lots of contemporary cultural references, philosophical references, poetic references...you get the idea. The poems are very abstract, in the sense that you shouldn't expect to read a poem and come away with any cohesive sense of what you just read.

Overall, I enjoyed the collection. I don't read a lot of poetry, but I'm sure I would read more of it if I knew more people that wrote like this. It was fun to read, and fun to read out loud and I found myself laughing while reading more than anything in quite some time. I decided to take some of my favorite lines, and rearrange them into a new poem. Since I could never write a poem that referenced Sartre, Star Wars, Joy Division, Freud, and David Bowie, I'm letting Robbins do it for me. If you're intrigued by these lines, check out some of Robbins' unbastardized work on the Poetry Foundation's website and follow him on twitter. Looking forward to another collection set to be released later this year. 


'Ode to AVP'

If hell, like Soylent Green, is people,
every little hermit is the one true God.
She's not the droid you're looking for.
This baby is disgusting. Fuck you, baby.

Hold me close, tiny reindeer.
I get my news from Meerkat Manor
I think I left my uterus in your uterus
Please don't get me started on astronauts.

I measure my pleasure in AMBER Alerts.
Let's put the Christ back in Xbox
by licking the nun and kicking her habit,
the elephant of surprise.

You shouldn't drink diarrhea
unless you bring enough for everybody.
Life is but the interpretation of a dream.
Gently, gently down the drain.

This is Uncle Tom to Ground Control.
Love will tear us a new asshole.
Now I'm required
to register as a sex pretender.

The business school has softer
toilet paper, so I do my business there.
Sing "Crimson and Clover" over and overy
to the dollar dollar bill and yes yes y'all.