Standing Water

Poems

Fiction & Literature, Poetry, American
Cover of the book Standing Water by Eleanor Chai, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Eleanor Chai ISBN: 9780374714918
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication: April 12, 2016
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Language: English
Author: Eleanor Chai
ISBN: 9780374714918
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication: April 12, 2016
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: English

A profound literary debut that recounts a child’s singular story

Since I made you, you may

imagine I set myself on fire
or better, say: you lit the funeral pyre
from ten thousand days away.

A young woman in Paris encounters an uncanny presence on a tour of a small museum. A study by Rodin of the dancer Little Hanako—titled Head of Sorrow—triggers in the young woman recognition of her mother, a mother erased from her life since childhood.

Thus begins Eleanor Chai’s Standing Water, one of the most remarkable first books of poetry in recent years. It is a journey into the past as well as the present—into the narrative hidden from the poet since birth, as well as the strategies that she has adopted to survive. It is a journey about how we learn to cope with, to perceive and describe, the world. It is a story about savage privilege and deprivation.

Haunting the whole is the figure of the real Little Hanako—Rodin’s model, a Japanese artist displaced in Europe, the medium through which other artists dream and discover the world.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A profound literary debut that recounts a child’s singular story

Since I made you, you may

imagine I set myself on fire
or better, say: you lit the funeral pyre
from ten thousand days away.

A young woman in Paris encounters an uncanny presence on a tour of a small museum. A study by Rodin of the dancer Little Hanako—titled Head of Sorrow—triggers in the young woman recognition of her mother, a mother erased from her life since childhood.

Thus begins Eleanor Chai’s Standing Water, one of the most remarkable first books of poetry in recent years. It is a journey into the past as well as the present—into the narrative hidden from the poet since birth, as well as the strategies that she has adopted to survive. It is a journey about how we learn to cope with, to perceive and describe, the world. It is a story about savage privilege and deprivation.

Haunting the whole is the figure of the real Little Hanako—Rodin’s model, a Japanese artist displaced in Europe, the medium through which other artists dream and discover the world.

More books from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Cover of the book Dear Elizabeth: A Play in Letters from Elizabeth Bishop to Robert Lowell and Back Again by Eleanor Chai
Cover of the book Desire Lines by Eleanor Chai
Cover of the book Unfinished Business by Eleanor Chai
Cover of the book Funny How Things Change by Eleanor Chai
Cover of the book The Redress of Poetry by Eleanor Chai
Cover of the book Wonder Women by Eleanor Chai
Cover of the book Poems 1959-2009 by Eleanor Chai
Cover of the book The Manor: Three Centuries at a Slave Plantation on Long Island by Eleanor Chai
Cover of the book Gamelife by Eleanor Chai
Cover of the book The Challenge by Eleanor Chai
Cover of the book How to Share with a Bear by Eleanor Chai
Cover of the book The Third Chapter by Eleanor Chai
Cover of the book Full Service by Eleanor Chai
Cover of the book Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution by Eleanor Chai
Cover of the book The Bridge by Eleanor Chai
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy