The Afterlife of Objects - Paperback

by Dan Chiasson (Author)

Both intensely personal and deeply rooted in recognizable events of personal, familial, or national significance, The Afterlife of Objects is a kind of dreamed autobiography. With poise and skill, Dan Chiasson divulges the enigmas of the mind of not just one individual but of an entire social world through a beautifully constructed poetic voice that issues from a kind of mythic childhood of our collective, tortured humanity. This sophisticated debut collection offers deceptively simple poems that evoke highly complex states of mind with a voice that has long been listening to the discordant music of contemporary life.

Front Jacket

Both intensely personal and rooted in recognizable events of American life, The Afterlife of Objects is a kind of dreamed autobiography. The enigmas of an individual mind become, in Dan Chiasson's poems, puzzles with wider social and historical significance. This sophisticated debut collection asks us to imagine our selves back into real life, evoking highly lyrical and pitched to the discordant music of contemporary life. Chiasson's poems provide one of the most poised and searching answers yet to Ralph Waldo Emerson's question, Where do we find ourselves?

Author Biography

Dan Chiasson is an assistant professor of English at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. His poems have appeared in magazines such as Paris Review, Ploughshares Slate, Threepenny Review, and Partisian Review. He was named Debut Poet by the New Yorker in 2001.