Plot (Grove Press Poetry Series) [Paperback]

Claudia Rankine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 9, 2001 | Series: Grove Press Poetry Series

Her third collection of poetry, Claudia Rankine's Plot is original and enchanting, and the language, as in her acclaimed The End of the Alphabet, never ceases to startle and confront. Plot is a postmodern dialogue about pregnancy and childbirth. Liv, the expectant mother, and her husband, Erland, find themselves propelled into one of our most basic plots -- boy loves girl, girl gets pregnant. Liv's respect for life, however, makes her reluctant to bring a new life into the world. The couple's electrifying journey is charted through dreams, conversations, and reflections. A text like no other, it crosses genres, existing at times in poetry, at times in dialogue and prose, in order to arrive at new life and baby Ersatz. This stunning, avant-garde performance enacts what it means to be human, and to invest in humanity.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Spiraling around the story of "Liv" and "Erland" and their future child, "Ersatz," this book-length poem embeds its loose "plot" in the sensations and anxieties of birth and child-rearing: "Liv, answer me this: Is the female anatomically in need of a child as a life preserver, a hand, a hand up? And now, pap smeared, do you want harder the family you fear in fear of all those answers?" One of the more striking moments is when the three main figures conjoin to render the self-other situation clear: "That same night Erland pressed his ear to Liv's belly./ What do you hear? Liv asked./ Not you, Erland answered. Not you." Unfortunately, unlike Rankine's tersely investigative The End of the Alphabet, Plot is particularly prone to run-on, obfuscated formulations and grammatical constructions: "the damaged image absorbed to appear, the exemplar seen and felt as one, having grown thick in the interior, opens on to surface and is the surface reflecting its source." (Such passages may actually be purposefully "embryonic.") A dialogical "Interlude" and a series of odd, graphically charted pages chart further separations, but don't feel completely motivated. This book seems consciously aimed at the nexus of several different feminist avant-garde projects, from the nouveau roman of Monique Wittig to Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictee. If it doesn't quite hit the mark this time, it promises further inquiry. (Apr. 9) Forecast: Rankine was the co-organizer of the influential "Where Lyric Traditions Meet Language Poetry: Innovation in Contemporary American Poetry by Women" conference in New York in 1999, and is very well known on the experimental and po-biz scenes. Many poetry readers will buy this book just to see what she's up to, and others may find it if shelved in women's studies, African-American studies or fiction sections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1 edition (April 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080213792X
• ISBN-13: 978-0802137920
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,035,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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