Quantum Lyrics: Poems [Hardcover]

A. Van Jordan (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The principles of physics, the lives of physicists (especially Albert Einstein) and the dilemmas of classic comic book heroes provide Van Jordan (M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A) with the structure and occasions for his often delightful, always clear and occasionally profound third volume. The second and longest of its three sections follows Einstein's biography from early adulthood and first marriage (to the mathematician Mileva Maric, the mother of his children) through infidelities, emigration, fame, travels in America and Einstein's latter-day campaigns against nuclear weapons and racial injustice. Terms from physics make easy (at times, too easy) metaphors for more human concerns: promise me/ you'll never cease being/ the elegant equation, Einstein asks Maric; decades afterwards, Paul Robeson muses, during his meeting with the great thinker, My voice/ is as dangerous as any atom splitting/ open. The best poems here leave famous thinkers and performers behind—the set of short poems about the superhero called the Atom, for example, who maintained a secret identity as a lovelorn physicist and whose powers let him shrink down to nuclear size: It was as if no one had seen me// until I mastered the science// of shrinking my body. (July)
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Product Description

This provocative, ambitious collection explores the intersection of the infinite world of physics with the perplexities of the human condition. Employing both narrative and cinematic structure, A. Van Jordan re-creates the lives of his subjects: Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, comic-book superheroes (The Green Lantern, The Atom), along with aspects of himself revealed in poems of recollection and loss. With lyric intensity he suggests that contemporary physicists are also metaphysical poets.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (July 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393064999
• ISBN-13: 978-0393064995
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #555,899 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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  Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > African American > Poetry

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Brilliant Mix of Polemic Prose, Science and Science Fiction, April 18, 2009

By	Sacramento Book Review "Sacramento Book Review" (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quantum Lyrics: Poems (Paperback)

In //Quantum Lyrics// A. Van Jordan takes the reader on a ride they won't soon forget. In his collection full of lyricism, imagery, and history, Mr. Jordan examines math and science and how they relate to what it means to be human. Most of the poems settle around Einstein, and how he viewed his contributions to society - how he, Einstein, viewed human relationships from when he first got married, to the night he dreamed about his famous equation. Two poems dealing with Richard Feynman lectures, and a couple of poems about comic book heroes, the Flash and the Green Lantern are absolute joys to read. This is a unique collection of prose that take you on a journey of discovery, a journey of self-discovery. The conversations between Einstein and his future wife are interesting, for it shows how even a genius like Einstein had trouble relating to his wife, and readers may find of particular interest Einstein's love letter to his future wife, Mileva Maric. This is a book for those who love both a mixture of science and poetry and highly recommended.

Reviewed by Kevin Winter