HIGHWAY TO THE SKY

by Michael Brownstein ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 1, 1969

This book is published as the winner of the second annual Frank O'Hara Foundation Award, The reputation of the late Frank O'Hara, as a poet of the first rank and champion of avant-garde expression, could scarcely have been better served. Michael Brownstein is a young poet of verve and startling originality. His materials are mostly inchoate -- nascent feelings, fantasies, ""states of mind."" His wit, which is considerable, is often hidden in gnomic rhetoric. Or it is broader, depending on deadpan puns or absurd conceits, such as having the poet carry on a serio-comic conversation with a cloud. In any case, the humor is that of a game played in all seriousness, an elaborate game which repeatedly mimics the action of profound psychological mechanisms. With the languid self-possession of a piano prodigy, Brownstein negotiates the rigors of a radically Contemporary poetry. The spectacle is enormously entertaining.

Pub Date: Nov. 1, 1969

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 1969

Categories: NONFICTION