The Revolution of Heavenly Bodies & Other Stories

Literature & Fiction

Tayyar, Kareem

Literary

J.New Books

Fiction. It's the summer of 1986 in Orange County, California, and ten-year-old Thomas Kabiri's father has just left for Iran to attend a funeral. With no school in session for the next few months, and Thomas's mother working two jobs to keep the family afloat, Thomas can live like Fountain Valley's answer to Huck Finn, spending his unsupervised days playing basketball at the local park, where an assorted cast of local characters come to shoot hoops, argue about pop culture, and tell tall tales so grandiose they would put Walter Mitty to shame. However, everything changes when Thomas befriends Earl Lewis, an ex-professional basketball player who has arrived in town to look for a former teammate who vanished ten years earlier. As Earl slowly becomes the second father Thomas needs at this point in his life, Thomas, with his encyclopedic knowledge of the Southern California playground basketball scene, helps Earl in his search to find his long-lost friend. As Thomas and Earl's quest takes them all over Southern California, Thomas slowly begins to learn about the world that exists beyond the basketball court, and what he ultimately wants his place in that world to be. THE PRINCE OF ORANGE COUNTY is, like Nick Hornby's About A Boy and Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, a work that captures the sometimes funny, sometimes painful, always colorful experience that is growing up, and it does so with an unwavering affection for its large and diverse cast of characters.

The Prince of Orange County

Genre Fiction

Pelekinesis

﻿Before I start my blurb, the blurb part of my blurb, with the references to other writers and a bit on the skills of the poet, all of which are going to be completely accurate and true, I want to say that this is the most fun I've had reading a book of poems in ages. Beer-in-church fun. Oxygen-on-the-moon fun. Favorite-musician-fingerpicking-your-favorite-song-on-your-birthday fun. Kareem Tayyar is one of the rare poets who still hears America singing and wants to expand upon its song. And he does so beautifully in Keats in San Francisco. From poems about Ramadan to poems about Townes Van Zandt, Tayyar builds his poetry in the spirits of temples and dirty dive bars where the best music happens. Everyone here is welcome. Keats in San Francisco is poetry for readers who love poems and readers who need their poetic door opened. In poems of stunning lyrical beauty Tayyar reminds us that we can all "seem happy / which is poetry enough." Like his contemporary, the excellent Ross Gay, Tayyar makes poetry from what he loves. There are dreams of John Berryman mixed with visions and the birds he sees with his imagination leave feathers. Tayyar hears the calling of the Pacific Ocean and shows us how to enjoy the view. This is a world book of poems, one that recognizes the wisdom of Sun Ra and the grit of grandfathers immigrating to America. He knows that Andy Warhol is just as useful in Iran as in New York. Tayyar doesn't believe in boundaries; he believes in beauty. Reading Keats in San Francisco is like mixing oxygen with religion-it reminds us to stay alive and seek out the light. Brilliant work! 
--Dave Newman, Author of East Pittsburgh Downlow

Keats in San Francisco

Poetry

Lily Poetry Review Books

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Books by Tayyar, Kareem