Neck Deep and Other Predicaments: Essays [Paperback]

Ander Monson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 23, 2007

An innovative and engaging nonfiction debut by "an original new voice" (Publishers Weekly) and the winner of the 2006 Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize

 

In this sparkling nonfiction debut, Ander Monson uses unexpectedly nonliterary forms--the index, the Harvard Outline, the mathematical proof--to delve into an equally surprising mix of obsessions: disc golf, the history of mining in northern Michigan, car washes, topology, and more. He reflects on his outsider experience at an exclusive Detroit-area boarding school in the form of a criminal history and invents a new form as he meditates on snow.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This esoteric collection, awarded the second annual Graywolf Press Nonfiction Prize, is described by contest judge Robert Polito as "astonishing," a "dismantling and reinvention of the essay as an instrument for thought." Readers are bound to agree; in his first nonfiction book, poet and novelist Monson (Vacationland) offers a parade of quirky, at times avant-garde methods for exploring his obsessions with everything from frisbee golf ("The Long Crush") to car washes ("The Big and Sometimes Colored Foam: Four Annotated Car Washes") to the lost art of sending telegrams ("Afterword: Elegy for Telegram and Starflight"). He pits working-class values against those of Michigan's suburban upper crust-grappling with his own point throughout-in "Cranbrook Schools: Adventures in Bourgeois Topologies," an ironic, semi-nostalgic look at his pre-expulsion years in an elite boarding school. In "Outline Toward a Theory of the Mine Versus the Mind and the Harvard Outline," a well-crafted outline unpacks the history of mining in northern Michigan. "Index for X and the Origin of Fires" is perhaps the best of the bunch; Monson explains it in his notes as "the original index to my novel, Other Electricities, before it was trimmed out and became this something else. One hopes it still refers to a (or the) recognizable world." Wonderfully recondite and cunningly executed, Monson's work will make a brilliant discovery for open-minded fans of narrative nonfiction.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"Elizabeth Bishop often remarked that she wanted poems and prose that register the mind in motion rather than at rest. Bishop would have loved the work of Ander Monson, as much for his yearning mind as his quick, restless, precise motion. 'I HAVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT SNOW,' Monson writes in Neck Deep. Yes, indeed, and one of the many copious and surprising things he's also obviously been thinking about is the new American essay, of which he is the latest Edison, to touch on the title of his earlier novel, Other Electricities. For Monson the essay is something like a schematics for our fiercest longings and most ecstatic inventions. Every time I turn to it I'm astonished all over again by the majesty of this book." --Robert Polito, Judge

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: Graywolf Press (January 23, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555974597
• ISBN-13: 978-1555974596
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #476,139 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ander Monson is the author of a host of paraphernalia including a decoder wheel, several chapbooks and limited edition letterpress collaborations, a website (otherelectricities.com), and five books, most recently The Available World (poetry, Sarabande, 2010) and Vanishing Point: Not a Memoir (nonfiction, Graywolf, 2010). He lives and teaches in Tucson, Arizona, where he edits the magazine DIAGRAM (thediagram.com) and the New Michigan Press.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "I call this <3 ", March 4, 2008

By 

Jaimie Eubanks "Jaimie" (Corn-Fed, MidWEST) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Neck Deep and Other Predicaments: Essays (Paperback)

Length:: 8:23 Mins

I wrote this essay based on this guy i saw this one time who, like, wrote this book or something.

that's all.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If the video review is to be considered essay, February 25, 2008

By 

A. Monson (Tucson, AZ, USA (mostly)) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Neck Deep and Other Predicaments: Essays (Paperback)

Length:: 0:53 Mins

Why not use the technology provided to expand the book? The video review, apparently underused, is a potentially powerful additive to the book itself. One of more to come.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ingenious, April 13, 2011

By 

Tristan - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Neck Deep and Other Predicaments: Essays (Paperback)

One of the greatest appeals to Monson's writing is his plentiful use of humor. Monson's language is entertaining and full of reality. His use of pulling the definition of a dedication and appendix for this book from The Chicago Manual of Style, 13th edition, had me laughing from the beginning to the end, especially since I am an English major!

Monson's writing is diverse in subject, from mining to car washes, and his use of the essay form is effective. Because he touches on so many everyday images and subjects, I think he is able to find threads of connection to many people. Despite his wide range of interests, the writing is cohesive and strangely connected on multiple levels.

The visual appeal in the text itself is a wonderful way of using and breaking traditional essay form. In "Outline Toward a Theory of the Mine Versus the Mind and the Harvard Outline," "I Have Been Thinking About Snow," "Index for X and the Origin of Fires," and "Failure: A Meditation Another Iteration (With Interruptions)," Monson blurs the poetry and visual artistry in simple ways by using line breaks, indentation, and series of ellipses.

In "The Long Crush" he delves into his passion for disc golf. He is gracious enough to take the time to explain the difference between a Frisbee and a golf disc as well as explains the logistics of the sport. The essay is personal and full of facts, both of which create a voice for Monson that intrigues the reader.