Solutions for the Problem of Bodies in Space
Poems
by Catherine Barnett
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Pub Date May 07 2024 | Archive Date Apr 30 2024
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Description
The loneliness that collects in mirrors and faces—at bedside vigils and in city streets—quickens Catherine Barnett’s metaphysical poems, which are like speculative prescriptions for this common human experience. Here loneliness is filled with belonging, which is in turn filled with loneliness, each state suffused and emptied by the other. Barnett’s fourth collection is part manifesto, part how-to manual, part apologia: a guide to the homeopathic dangers and healing powers of an emotion so charged with eros, humor, and elusive beauty it becomes a companion both desired and eschewed, necessary and illuminating.
Solutions for the Problem of Bodies in Space is never far from grief or a comedy of bewilderment, inadequacy, hope. Entering Barnett’s world is a little like entering an electrically charged cloud, and the prospect of either falling or getting caught in a storm brings vertiginous and unpredictable pleasures. Bristling with uncanny intelligence, the poems are sometimes quiet elegies, sometimes meditations on art, love, and the failures of love that so often define love. Barnett might be called a realist—her style is radiantly exact—yet somehow she is a guide both into and out of the existential void. She has written a tender, dazzling collection of estrangement and intimacy.
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National publicity campaign
Author tour
Bookseller, library, and academic outreach
Targeted digital advertising
Social media promotion
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781644452875 |
| PRICE | $17.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 96 |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Brice M, Reviewer
Thanks to NetGalley and Graywolf Press For the ARC!
Catherine Barnett’s "Solutions for the Problem of Bodies in Space" is as sprawling, excessive, and essential as one might expect from the book’s title, but it serves a purpose—illuminating the abundance of ways we try to fill the vacuum of loneliness.
This is a collection preoccupied with impermanence, slipping in and out of relationship and isolation in equal measure. The titular bodies move entropically, shaded by fatigue, which causes these poems to read like someone expelling every end-of-day thought in a single, heavy sigh. There are countless moments where the speaker seems to be throwing ideas at the wall, hoping at least one of them will offer the friction necessary for connection. Barnett’s ability to take this approach without it undermining the book is impressive. These poems draw the reader in just enough to make them aware of their own distance, and the effect is mesmerizing and dreamlike.
The title itself seems like an irony—these poems sit largely outside of space, often drifting towards metaphor in lieu of physicality. In an interesting move, the sequence comprising ten “Studies in Loneliness” poems feels the most transparent and the most grounded. It seems to suggest that the certainty of loneliness is its ability to offer moments of lucidity.
Truly a remarkable collection.
