{"id":3678,"date":"2013-09-03T19:35:12","date_gmt":"2013-09-03T19:35:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/?page_id=3678"},"modified":"2022-10-18T11:30:56","modified_gmt":"2022-10-18T15:30:56","slug":"and-so","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/and-so\/","title":{"rendered":"And So"},"content":{"rendered":"

[column col=”1\/4″]\"And<\/a><\/p>\n

paper \u2022 88 pages \u2022 15.95
\nISBN-13:\u00a0978-1-884800-91-7<\/p>\n

Add to Cart<\/a><\/p>\n

[\/column]<\/p>\n

And So<\/em><\/h1>\n

Joel Brouwer<\/h2>\n

Joel Brouwer\u2019s And So<\/em> is a cynical yet energetic study of the ways we account for the lives we lead.
\n\u201cWhich you are you?\u201d one poem asks, while another surprises itself by switching from third-person to
\nfirst-person: \u201cbut what am I doing in here.\u201d Another relates an anecdote about reality, representation,
\nand anecdotes themselves: \u201cWhen someone told Picasso his portrait\/ of Stein did not look like her, he
\nsaid It will<\/em>. When someone told Picasso that Stein did\/ not look like her portrait, he said She will<\/em>.\/ The
\nstory has been told both ways. Which is\/ itself another story.\u201d<\/p>\n

And So<\/em>, Brouwer\u2019s third collection (following Exactly What Happened<\/em> and Centuries<\/em>), watches lovers and
\nstrangers coupling and recoiling, and marks the moment of coitus as one which separates as much
\nas it unites. Original and exact similes (\u201cThe puppy sniffs the dry, leaf-choked gutter\/ like a bored
\nsommelier\u201d) lend texture as Brouwer\u2019s evocatively-portrayed characters\u2014so often you and I\u2014are
\ncaught up by the need to tell their stories and the responsibility to accept them, \u201calready masters of our
\nnarratives\/ and their every potential variation, violation, and volition.\u201d<\/p>\n

These stories enact Aristotle\u2019s understanding of tragedy, in which anagnorisis (unexpected recognition),
\nhamartia (an error in judgment), and peripeteia (a sudden reversal) take place not on the stage but in
\nour daily lives, where a young wife is \u201ctold\/ by the orange juice carton\u2019s cap that she is\/ not a winner.\u201d
\nBrouwer\u2019s deft line breaks allow events and their consequences (or lack of them) to fall down the page
\nwith equal inevitability and unease. As \u201cPeripeteia in a Soggy Snapshot, Featuring Lines by Ashbery
\nand Pronoun Confusion\u201d suggests, we are not always the protagonists of own lives, or of anyone else\u2019s:
\n\u201cOne thing is for sure: we have come\/ to resemble them, but they no longer do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Book-ended by poems which address what knowledge, if any, \u201cthe poem can now report,\u201d And So<\/em>
\nponders how we narrate our lives to each other and to ourselves: \u201cWe wouldn\u2019t know until the snapshots
\ncame back\/ how beautiful we\u2019d been. How the next motel\/ would later loom into view unique […] How
\neach\/ and every next would always be before.\u201d At stake here is not only Shakespeare\u2019s paradox of truthtelling
\n(\u201cWhen my love swears that she is made of truth,\/ I do believe her though I know she lies,\u201d
\nSonnet 138), or Emily Dickinson\u2019s \u201cTell all the Truth but tell it slant\u2014.\u201d Brouwer\u2019s masterful book, with
\nits poignant lacunae and recurrences, offers an unstinting look at how separate our lives together are.<\/p>\n

The Rehearsal<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>At left a yellow flat of sunlight leans
\nagainst a raw brick wall. Two cats\u2014one white,
\none black\u2014slump along the vast windowsill
\nas if drugged. Their little fangs glisten.<\/p>\n

A suggestion of steeple beyond the window,
\ncoupled with a recording of children
\nshouting in the imaginary square below,
\nconjures an older quarter. Red sofa stage right.<\/p>\n

Coffee table strewn with breakfast\u2019s remnants.
\nDish of bloody berries, greasy pages torn
\nfrom a pastry, a coffee cup set down
\nabsently, tilted on its saucer. And<\/span><\/p>\n

on the sofa she\u2019s reading newspapers.
\nThe world is dramatic but not tragic.
\nA stagehand lifts the hem of her dress,
\nshakes it softly, lets it fall, and exits.<\/p>\n

Music squeaks weakly from an old radio.
\nA vase of tulips sighs on a shelf.
\nAll is in its best place under its best dust,
\nand in the wings his line stalls in his throat.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

About the Author<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[column col=”1\/4″] paper \u2022 88 pages \u2022 15.95 ISBN-13:\u00a0978-1-884800-91-7 Add to Cart [\/column] And So Joel Brouwer Joel Brouwer\u2019s And So is a cynical yet energetic study of the ways we account for the lives we lead. \u201cWhich you are you?\u201d one poem asks, while another surprises itself by switching from third-person to first-person: \u201cbut […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3678","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3678"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18208,"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3678\/revisions\/18208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourwaybooks.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}