Beloved Infidel [Paperback]

Dean Young (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2004

After more than 12 years, Dean Young's second book of poetry, Beloved Infidel, is back in print.

Editorial Reviews

From the Author

Beloved Infidel is my second book but I really think of it as my first because it’s in this book that I felt like I was throwing off my (perfectly okay) education and beginning to write the poems I didn’t know how to write. There’s a lot to be said for concentrating on accessibility and there’s a lot to say for not worrying about it. In Beloved Infidel I began to address matters of poetic construction that still occupy me, the use of collage, the expressive possibilities of disjunction and tonal variance as well as finding my way to my own form of surrealism. I can read it now nearly without cringing.

From the Inside Flap

After more than 12 years, Dean Young’s second book, Beloved Infidel, is back in print. His timing is always three degrees before top-dead-center. His language burns at a high fuel-to-air ratio. His poems should be on blimps, on scoreboards or even bounced off Mars. To not read Dean Young brings a serious malaise, like ignoring milkshakes or the antic wave. If you are in love, read Dean Young. If you have ever been in love, read Dean Young. If you are suffering from a disturbance which has not made the pages of the DSM-IV, read Dean Young. Then plan for a recovery requiring a set of speakers in every room and a fair amount of tribal music. Have a muffin and a soy drink and find out, again, that everything becomes small when taken together. Dean Young makes sex, pieces of music, odd notations, night barkings and many facts about turbines coalesce into something sensible—because you believe there are moments where the piano can be played to great effect with the elbows. Every now and then squeeze the little heart and the lord will help you grow another. Dean Young is a splendid contraption. When you read him you’ll uncover pleasing sensations throughout your rumba chakra. Boom shakalaka, boom.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Hollyridge Press (September 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0967600391
• ISBN-13: 978-0967600390
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,479,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hearts and Other Things You'll Find in The Restroom, February 1, 2008

By 

Heather A. Schmidt (Waterford, Mi, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Beloved Infidel (Paperback)

Dean Young's poetry book "Beloved Infidel" seeks truth in the strangest places, like the men's restroom. The poems in this book are both witty and poignant. It is a good collection to begin with if you are not familiar with Young's writing because it is essentially his first book of poems where as he states on the back of the book" I really think of it as my first because it's in this book that I felt like I was throwing off my (perfectly good) education and beginning to write the poems I didn't know how to write."
You will get an idea of how his writing style began. You will find yourself reevaluating what poetry can be. He uses strong images and tone to bring the reader closer to what he is trying to say about life. One of the best things about his poetry is how he ties an ordinary thing like "rain filling a crack" or a situation where "I didn't know how alone I was until they brought out more chairs" to create a building of emotional exigency. It is these things he highlights in the poem that make the reader see the greater picture he is trying to paint about life.
This book contains a lot of poems about the dynamics between men and women like "Marriage" and " What Does Us In." In his poem "Shades" he writes about the difficulty of helping a friend deal with his wife's suicide in a very tender way. This tenderness is also revealed in "Another Ocean" and "The Soul" where he discusses watching his friend deal with a deadly illness. He also has some very erotic poems like "Storms" and "The First Time & The Time Before That" that show the vast contrast between two inexperienced lovers and two people that have many dynamics in their sexual relationship.
When you read this book it will make you examine how you see the relationships in your own life and whether you notice the things that make them special. Young's ability to make the reader aware in an understated way by throwing a surprising detail in the middle of the poem is what makes reading his poems so exciting. His poems are sewn together by their tone which is created by tender language or brash language and images of things in life we don't often focus on.
Young uses a lot of association in his poems and strengthens the connections with parallelism. A good example of this is found in his poem "The Fine Arts" where he uses the different pieces of art in his life to describe the stages of a relationship. He uses the art as the object of parallelism with pieces by Bonnard, a table, and a Chagall painting.
Dean Young's poetic voice is distinctive and unpretentious which is highly appealing because he is not afraid to admit he doesn't have all the answers. His questioning makes the reader feel like she isn't the only one bumbling around trying to figure out this life.