Man on Extremely Small Island [Paperback]

Jason Koo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2009

Poetry. Asian American Studies. Winner of the 2008 DeNovo Poetry Prize. "Jason Koo's MAN ON EXTREMELY SMALL ISLAND is an absurdly funny meditation on loneliness, desire and the silences between us. By turns mythic and pop, Koo's poems explore the anger, betrayal and compromises of young love, as well as the complexities of communication within families. MAN ON EXTREMELY SMALL ISLAND is a self-effacing look at anguish, an expansive and inclusive debut"—Denise Duhamel.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jason Koo was born in New York City and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He holds a BA in English from Yale, an MFA in creative writing from the University of Houston and a PhD in English and creative writing from the University of Missouri-Columbia. The recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vermont Studio Center, he has published his poetry and prose in numerous journals, including The Missouri Review, North American Review, and The Yale Review. He currently lives in New York, where he teaches at NYU and Lehman College and serves as Poetry Editor of Low Rent.

Product Details

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: C&R Press (December 15, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981501036
• ISBN-13: 978-0981501031
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,319,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jason Koo is the author of Man on Extremely Small Island (C&R Press, 2009), winner of the De Novo Poetry Prize and the Asian American Writers' Workshop Members' Choice Award for the best Asian American book of 2009. He was born in New York City and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his BA in English from Yale, his MFA in creative writing from the University of Houston and his PhD in English and creative writing from the University of Missouri-Columbia. The winner of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Vermont Studio Center, he has published his poetry and prose in numerous journals, including The Yale Review, North American Review and The Missouri Review. He teaches at Lehman College of the City University of New York, where he directs the graduate program in English. He lives in Brooklyn with his cat, Django.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "This is for the romantics...", May 12, 2010

By 

Jane W. (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Man on Extremely Small Island (Paperback)

I was initially drawn to Koo's debut book of poetry because of our similar ethnicity and background: we are both (to steal from one of his titles) "Korean American Figure[s] in the Midwest." There aren't many published writers out there who share this bond with me. We both grew up feeling slightly out of wack in a world of blonde and blue-eyed neighbors, cornfields and cows, and malls of America. I could feel that shared sense of isolation in many of his poems, but soon realized that Koo's poetry strikes a cord on a much broader level. One does not have to be Asian American, or even a minority, to fully embrace this book. To anyone who has loved and lost, who has felt alone and longed for something more, or who has both laughed and cursed at the world: this book is for you. Koo's words are powerful, honest, and clever. They evoke a variety of emotions that sometimes "compete" with each other in a single poem (that's a good thing). In "Casey Blake and Time," you feel Koo's disappointment and satisfaction, sorrow and pleasure, and confidence and insecurity: "Even in complete happiness there is a chip. / Even in the hottest streak the seeds of a slump." I love how Koo uses baseball and pop culture to depict the themes of his book. "How to Watch Your Team Lose Game Seven of the World Series" ends with one of my favorite lines: "And then this, to see your team up by a run with two outs to go, / To get a glimpse of another life, and to sit there powerless as this life / Is slowly siphoned away from you and replaced with the one / You already have, the one your whole life has been preparing you for." Bravo.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read, March 2, 2010

By 

MB Burns (Abilene, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Man on Extremely Small Island (Paperback)

Jason Koo has created poems that are approachable, at times humorous, and always intensively clever. We can relate to the pain of broken and lost relationships, smile in grim familiarity when we also remember our team losing Game Seven, and sympathize with the ironic twists of life. My favorite piece is "Shopping with Mayakovsky." It is a treasure.