The Elephant of Silence: Essays on Poetics and Cinema

Humor & Entertainment

Barger, John Wall

Movies

LSU Press

Pain-Proof Men

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

Palimpsest Press

As its title suggests, Resurrection Fail is a worthy paradox, blending John Wall Barger's enviable economy of style with a luxury of spirit that glimmers beneath both his speaker's fetching enthusiasms and deep sorrows. These poems capture how the world's beauty and brutality are bound together; that we fail and—if we're lucky—find the will to resurrect ourselves over and over again. But for all this poet's clear seriousness of purpose, there's a vivid, often witty life force here that reminds me that I'm glad to be alive. I really loved getting to know this book and I bet you will, too. 
Erin Belieu\nJohn Wall Barger’s poems win our respect with their hard truths and our love with their compassionate telling of them. With a breathtaking ferocity of feeling, his lyric narratives amble out of memory into surprise—surprise at the horrors we are capable of and at our resilience in enduring them. Following Kierkegaard’s belief that “Life can only be understood backwards,” Barger chases the receding years, the past revealed in a series of wrenching shocks: “Like the anatomy student I once met / who slid the sheet / off a corpse / and there was / his childhood crush.” This is essential poetry, a singular and vital record of the pain and joy that attend on living. 
David Yezzi

Resurrection Fail

Spuyten Duyvil Publishing

Poetry. THE MEAN GAME--John Wall Barger's fourth book-length entry in what might be called, collectively, a savage comedy--bristles with allegories that explore human cruelty and suffering. Gathering narratives that feel both ancient and modern, Barger forges an apocalyptic vision without sacrificing poetry's underlying sense of joy, humour and revelation. Part comic book translated from a dead language, and part nightmare dreamscape, THE MEAN GAME is a must-read from one of Canada's most kinetic writers.

Mean Game, The

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