In this Book
- The Primitive Observatory
- Book
- 2016
- Published by: Southern Illinois University Press
- Series: Crab Orchard Series in Poetry
summary
The poems of The Primitive Observatory, set roughly in the Gilded Age, take readers into a dreamy, alluring world where hapless travelers, doomed heirs, and other colorful types grapple with horrors. Within the pages of this book, we find a group of cousins who wager their pets in endless games of mahjong, a village whose inhabitants all dream the same dreams, and Maurice, who watches Greta Garbo movies while waiting for death in the macabre home of his grandfather, a man suspected of sinister hypnosis and unspeakable crimes.
Kimbrell explores such themes as memory, class prejudice, family violence, and greed in a flamboyant, yet matter-of-fact style to create verse that is both amusing and unsettling. Combining prose that evokes H. P. Lovecraft, classical mythology, and Marcel Proust with the look and taut line of traditional formalist verse, the poems appear on the page as perfect rectangles, yet revel in narrative and linguistic absurdities.
The Primitive Observatory offers a dark and evocative experience through the tangible grotesque. Fans of David Lynch, Franz Kafka, Edward Gorey and the like will be startled, excited, and pleased by this entertaining and disturbing book of poetry.
Kimbrell explores such themes as memory, class prejudice, family violence, and greed in a flamboyant, yet matter-of-fact style to create verse that is both amusing and unsettling. Combining prose that evokes H. P. Lovecraft, classical mythology, and Marcel Proust with the look and taut line of traditional formalist verse, the poems appear on the page as perfect rectangles, yet revel in narrative and linguistic absurdities.
The Primitive Observatory offers a dark and evocative experience through the tangible grotesque. Fans of David Lynch, Franz Kafka, Edward Gorey and the like will be startled, excited, and pleased by this entertaining and disturbing book of poetry.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Acknowledgments
- pp. vii-viii
- Part One
- The Turn of the Weather Vane
- pp. 8-9
- The Order of Silence
- p. 10
- The Quarantine
- pp. 11-12
- The Passing Brigade
- pp. 13-14
- Part Two
- The Blizzard
- p. 17
- The Burial Plot
- pp. 18-19
- The Remote District
- p. 21
- The Monster of Barlow
- pp. 26-27
- The Diplomats
- p. 28
- The Next Palace
- pp. 29-30
- Part Three
- The Goat God
- p. 33
- Hotel Vitruvius
- pp. 34-35
- 1900 Gibbon Street
- pp. 37-38
- The Age of Miracles
- pp. 39-40
- The Marshes
- p. 41
- The Barrier Reef
- pp. 46-48
- Part Four
- The Four Cousins
- pp. 52-54
- The Ruin at Drax End
- pp. 55-56
- The Sluice Gate
- p. 59
- Yellow Fingers
- pp. 63-64
- The Coming Winter
- pp. 67-68
Additional Information
ISBN
9780809334810
Related ISBN(s)
9780809334803
MARC Record
OCLC
938563965
Pages
80
Launched on MUSE
2016-02-13
Language
English
Open Access
No
Copyright
2016