Artist and writer Felix Bernstein's first book of poems mordantly stages his attempt to pick between family, lovers, coteries, and solitude. Drawing on the story of child muse Eva Ionesco, Bernstein troubles the melodramatic coming-of-age story with his neurotic self-critical ruminations. Does the pouty, post-digital, coquettish boy have recourse to transgression? To answer, Bernstein rummages through the closets of his queer and familial lineages and finds many skeletons in waiting. Awkward, fragile, imposing, parodic, and earnest, these poems push brooding indifference into elegy and seduction. Burn Book, full of correspondence and confession, is an irreverent and irresistible treat for those readers who dare to be burned.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Nightboat Books
Published: 02/02/2016
ISBN: 9781937658427
Pages: 126
Weight: 0.50lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.30d

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 07/04/2016