Fancy Beasts

(Paperback)

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California wildfires, the 2008 election, plastic surgery, Larry Craig, wildfires, Wal-Mart, and rampant commercialisminFancy Beasts, Alex Lemon takes on American media culture, the obscene foil for personal legacies of violence and violation.

The poems of this collection are a workout: vigorous and raw, frenetic and fearless. Yet they are also composed and controlled, pared down and sculpted, with a disarming narrative simplicity and directness. Even when dealing with toxic contentincluding the turning point in a life of abuse, in which the recovering victim/perpetrator puzzles through the paradigm of son-to-husband-to-fatherLemons point of view is always genuine and trustworthy.

A frank, funny, and inimitably frenetic vision of post-millennial America,Fancy Beastsis a stunning achievement from Alex Lemon.

Reviews

"A master of negative empathy, Lemon spelunks through the brain's darker convolutions and clearly enjoys testing the reader's limits. --Library Journal, starred review "Full of raw energy, up-to-date in its slang and its jump cuts, effervescent with the playfulness and sometimes the angers of youth, the third collection from Lemon conveys a likable, outsized personality." --Publishers Weekly "Life cleverly and joyfully rages in Alex Lemon's poems."--Major Jackson "Alex Lemon dazzles us with his ability to slice straight through nerve and marrow on his way to the heart and mind of the matter."--Tracy K. Smith "Fancy Beasts is a terrific book by one of the best younger poets at work today."--Kevin Prufer "This book will likely appeal most to twenty-somethings with an emo/hipster bent, but even older readers will be impressed by Lemon's calculated audacity."--Library Journal (starred review) "Full of raw energy, up-to-date in its slang and its jump cuts, effervescent with the playfulness and sometimes the angers of youth, the third collection from Lemon (Hallelujah Blackout) conveys a likable, outsized personality; it should also work well in tandem with the Texas-based poet's forthcoming memoir, Happy (Scribner, 2010). Like Tony Hoagland, Lemon is often self-conscious about the volatilities his poems convey, about their almost giddy tonalities, but he will not apologize for himself: adult life is a scary gift, a fast trip, a set of close encounters with 'this fizzing pier life.'"--Publishers Weekly