Left Bank reading & reviews, comments & my "clarification"

Recent readers compare the experience to Marilynne Robinson and William Gass. (I went out and got a book by Robinson to see.)

Let me just say: the "double hyphen dash" and the regular solid strike dash are used in my text with reason. Pacing and utterance have to do with it.

And regarding epigraphs: the choices and the placement/phrasing/crediting are every bit as important to the text as the text. What allows the text and what supports the text is universal, but it is all personal. Flux and form: equal parts important. Otherwise we wouldn't be here.

See you at Manchester and The Mountain on Friday.

Thanks to all who bought the book at Southern New Hampshire University and Left Bank Books Saturday & Tuesday.

April Events

I'll be at Left Bank Books, Hanover NH, Tuesday April 20th w/ Andrea Cohen, 7:30
Then: April 17 11am SNHU for NHWP festival and
April 23 & 24 at VT's Manchester Literary Fest.
On the 27th I host for the Norwich Bookstore at NPL.
Come on by!

The "Green" Che.

I'm calling it "my Green Che"--not only because the cover is green [green fountain pen, green beret, green tint covering] but because, in a word, the book is about renewal: textually, emotionally, intellectually, politically, economically (oh yes, the gift economy. . . ; liberates the combo Green Money, yes?). Our own revolutions must be Green now, yes? Characters Mali and Fenton and Uncle, especially, go about what they do in this daily context, travelers of "the beyond" that they are. May our evolutions enliven. Be Green As Possible, friend to friend, eh Che?

unsung literary heroes

I've been sorting books in my office in preparation for a talk. The best things come to me this way, often. Here are four more books that surprised me, rock me, and in one way or another captivate me. Not one of them is well known; even Hugh Kenner's was found in a pile of remainders at The St. Mark's bookstore (many years ago), far under-priced: _We bark at Midnight_, by Van Lane Ferguson (Tuttle, Rutland VT and Tokyo Japan); _Daughters Of Memory_, by Peter Najarian (City Miner, Berkeley); _A Homemade World_, by Hugh Kenner (Marion Boyars, London); and _Red_, by Melanie Braverman (Perugia, Florence Massachusetts). I see Melanie Braverman on the flats in Provincetown every other summer or so. It is a wonder that such writing of simplicity and torque comes from, also, the quiet of standing--or submerged in--the few remaining inches of tide, ebbing or oncoming, in gentle conversation. This is the seed that floats from India to Ireland, from Italy to Haiti. We are made more of what we become by drift.

John Ashbery novel?

Oh, I meant to say: one editor told me "This is the kind of novel John Ashbery would write if Ashbery wrote a [new] novel."
John's a grand-daddy to us all (and, as it happens, my first real impulse teaser as a poet). Many years ago I moved to study with him (it didn't happen; Allen Ginsberg was there in his place--which was fortunate also). . .. I had sent a telegram to Ashbery from New Zealand to tell him about my intention.: "Traveling world/STOP/Moving to Brooklyn/STOP/Need to know your teaching/STOP" (that's how they did it then). So. . .Ashbery fans. . . . Heck, hello?

If/THEN. . .Vampire Weekend--maybe Che.: a novella in three parts. Friend,

IF Vampire Weekend, Ali Farka Toure. . .then maybe you'd like the tone & undercurrent of CHE too.
A friend turned me on to VW only last night & I'm floating there in the sound, a bay & birds made of lyrics
thatch a nest in mind's matter, a comfort dog that takes you out on a walk, the great kiss slip off,
a cosmos' sort of whirl, out of a box into a world or worlds--; geography the sky loves.
The list could be long (what we like, and---) but you know the feeling's specific--; & you're "home."

Each season in a cup. From fetal to dance, from fetal to dance.
This is an invitation, friend. "Put it on your lips. Crack a smile." Dance.

Send me a postcard and I'll send you one in return. Bring your copy of CHE around the world, send me your photograph
(of you and the badboy in green covers wherever you may be) with permission to create a book of friends with it.
I'll do something special for the person with the best photo.
CHE THE NOVELLA po bx c/o Peter Money Brownsville VT 05037
Tell a friend. Adventurous readers encouraged to apply. See you, Che. TRAVEL!

IF, THEN ___ ___ ____

IF YOU LIKE Alain de Botton On Love, Marie Darrieussecq Undercurrents, John Berger, David Malouf An Imaginary Life, Alessandro Baricco Silk, Carole Maso The Art Lover, David Markson This Is Not A Novel, Elias Khoury The Journey of Little Gandhi, Melanie Braverman, Lydia Davis, Jane Unrue, Margaret Atwood The Tent, Yannick Murphy Stories In Another Language, John Banville The Sea, H.D. The Gift, Wolfgang Borchert The Man Outside, William Carlos Williams Kora THEN,
Do yourself a favor and check out CHE. Pass the Word.

Nearly available, as of this posting.