{"product_id":"the-front-matter-dead-souls-9780819562951","title":"The Front Matter, Dead Souls","description":"Leslie Scalapino is widely regarded as one of the best avant-garde writers in America today. This extraordinary new book is essay-fiction-poetry, an experiment in form, \"a serial novel for publication in the newspaper\" that collapses the distinction between documentary and fiction. Loosely set in Los Angeles, the book scrutinizes our image-making, producing extreme and vivid images-hyena, Muscle Beach in Venice, the Supreme Court, subway rides-in order for them to be real. Countering contemporary trends toward interiority, Scalapino's work constitutes a unique effort to \"be\" objectively in the world. The writing is an action, a dynamic push to make intimacy in the public realm. She does not distinguish between poetry and \"real events\": her writing is analogous to Buddhist notions of dreaming one is a butterfly, and becoming aware that actually being the butterfly is as real as dreaming it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Wesleyan University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/13\/1996\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780819562951\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 103\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.31lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.49h x 5.53w x 0.34d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/22\/1996 pg. 68\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/1996 pg. 1118\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Leslie Scalapino","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":38520806211765,"sku":"9780819562951","price":13.56,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_508c7eaf-d2cc-4ad9-a7eb-6a9492212f08.jpg?v=1613482392","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-front-matter-dead-souls-9780819562951","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}