Book

The book of delights

Gay, Ross 1974- (author.).

Summary: "In The Book of Delights, one of today's most original literary voices offers up a genre-defying volume of lyric essays written over one tumultuous year. The first nonfiction book from award-winning poet Ross Gay is a record of the small joys we often overlook in our busy lives. Among Gay's funny, poetic, philosophical delights: a friend's unabashed use of air quotes, cradling a tomato seedling aboard an airplane, the silent nod of acknowledgment between the only two black people in a room. But Gay never dismisses the complexities, even the terrors, of living in America as a black man or the ecological and psychic violence of our consumer culture or the loss of those he loves. More than anything other subject, though, Gay celebrates the beauty of the natural world--his garden, the flowers peeking out of the sidewalk, the hypnotic movements of a praying mantis. The Book of Delights is about our shared bonds, and the rewards that come from a life closely observed. These remarkable pieces serve as a powerful and necessary reminder that we can, and should, stake out a space in our lives for delight."--

Record details

ISBN: 1616207922
ISBN: 9781616207922
Physical Description: xii, 274 pages ; 19 cm
print
Publisher: Chapel Hill, North Carolina : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, [2019]
Copyright: ©2019

Content descriptions

Formatted Contents Note:

The purple cornets of spring -- The volunteer -- Fishing an eyelash: Two or three cents on the virtues of the poetry reading -- Found things -- Found things (2) -- Cuplicking -- Bobblehead -- The jenky -- the crow's ablutions -- Flowers in the hands of statues -- An abundance of public toilets -- The wave of unfamiliars -- Not for nothing -- Bindweed ... delight? -- Dickhead 200 -- Ambiguous signage sometimes -- Heart to heart -- Caution: Bees on bridge -- Tomato on board -- Purple-handed -- Name: Kayte Young: phone number: 555-867-5309 -- Still processing -- Fireflies -- My scythe Jack -- Pawpaw grove -- Loitering -- Touched -- Scat -- Get thee to the nutrient cycle! -- Pulling carrots -- Filling the frame -- Reckless air quotes -- Judith Irene Gay, aged seventy-six today! -- Rothko backboard -- The Marfa lights -- The carport -- My Garden (book) -- Black bumblebees! -- Grown -- Coco-baby -- My birthday.