What the Sea Means: Poems, Stories & Monologues, 1987-2002 (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a decidedly wicked, silly, surreal sensibility, fracturing linguistic and social assumptions...somewhere between the Marx Brothers, conceptualism, and high art." -- Chicago Reader

"Masterful...Awl probes with a keen eye and ear and a wicked and illuminating mind." -- Gay Chicago

About the Author

Dave Awl is the founder of the Pansy Kings performance group and a ten-year veteran of The Neo-Futurists' fringe theater smash Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind. His writing and distinctive voice have been featured on the NPR programs Anthem and This American Life. He lives in Chicago with his cat and comic foil, Dragon Lady.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Hope And Nonthings (September 20, 2002)
• ISBN-10: 0970745877
• ISBN-13: 978-0970745873
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,892,896 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to captivate someone with a short attention span, October 16, 2002

By	Chris Bell (Auckland, New Zealand) - See all my reviews

The wonders of Dave Awl's book became apparent to me within 12 hours of it taking its place on my Kramer-style coffee table. A friend, not one normally to be seen within page-turning distance of a book - let alone to be seen sitting still on the sofa for longer than a nanosecond - suddenly (and without prompting) began reading aloud some of these stories, poems and monologues. Then she started laughing. Soon, she was recommending stories for me - I hadn't even begun reading 'What The Sea Means' at this point. Soon, we were passing the book back and forth, each reading aloud, exchanging "the good bits" (and there are many), and suggesting the book would make an excellent Christmas present for our friends.
OK. I'm biased. But I highly recommend, in no particular order: 'A Perfectly Empty Room' (story); 'The Idea of You' (monologue); 'Glastonbury' (poem); 'What The Sea Means' (poem); and a poem about Magritte, which I can't seem to find in the index but which I know has to be there ... Reading this book wouldn't be complete without its own little mysteries.
In a nutshell, word paintings that are surreal and full of revelations. Best of all, at the back of the book is a section of notes. It answers questions you haven't asked yet and poses some you wish you had.
Diving into Dave Awl's work is like discovering a continent or a magical island: You thought it might be there but you didn't dare hope it would be this weird, this different.
Do your brain cells a favour.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rising Young Star!, October 2, 2002

By A Customer

It's about time Dave Awl published a book of poetry! His delight with language and exquisite mind have been well-admired by his fans for years. He's a long-time writer/player of "The Neo-Futurists," which is famous here in Chicago -- and indeed across the world -- for its "thirty plays in sixty minutes" theater experience called "Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind." I've always loved Dave's Too Much Light plays because they challenge me as much as they entertain me, and I feel like I've gained a tiny glimpse into an amazing brain. It's good stuff. I've also managed to catch Dave in a few productions of the Pansy Kings Cotillion performance group, which he founded. He's been a major asset to the "fringe theater" scene in Chicago. Didn't I see him in a Theater Oobleck show, too? I can't remember. Everything I have seen him in has really just been awesome and I am a bona fide fan. I consider it a personal badge of honor that I was among the first to hear his bit on NPR's This American Life segment about Sissies. It was cool. But that's to be expected from Dave Awl, I guess.
This book, What the Sea Means, is pretty darned good! It includes really recent poetry, monologues from his gazillion shows, and some older poems. Words that come to mind are, "Range" "Depth," "Breadth," "What the . . .?!" How can a Jungian Surrealist write in rhyming quatrains? I don't pretend to know how he does it, but he does it well. And now he's doing it on the page, not just the stage.
Among my favorites in this collection are "What the Sea Means 2.0," "The City Slept and Metal Phantoms," "The Idea of You," "Stitching a Dummy," "A Perfectly Empty Room," "Immensity," "Talking to Myself," "Map of the Body," and "The Bestiary." I LOVE the Bestiary! If you like Rexroth's, you'll appreciate Dave Awl's. Hilarious!
I haven't decided which of these I'll give to my students when we study poetry this spring. I know they'd really get a lot out of and really get into a bunch of them.
Dave Awl is just a great writer and person -- I've had the pleasure of talking to him after a number of his shows. I can say with confidence that we could all benefit from having a little Dave Awl in our lives.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I can prove it, May 3, 2004

By	Rodney W. Glaze "rodcat6" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've now bought seven copies of this book to give to people. I've personally read it three times and find myself refering to it periodically during the course of normal conversation. Sure, people look at me a little strange as we drive down the road in their car and I say something like "Please drive. Please drive slowly." but I simply smile with a self knowing satisfaction of what I'll be getting them for their birthday. It's really a fine piece of work this book. A bargain at twice the price.