Been reading Jamie Iredell‘s Prose. Poems. A Novel. today. Wanted to talk about it with someone, so I figured I’d see if anyone else is reading/has read this one. The poetry of the prose is romantic and indulgent and perfectly ugly. I don’t know how he does it exactly, but Jamie never overwrites, while reserve and subtlety don’t appear to be his concern. And the anxiety of Denis Johnson’s influence doesn’t deter him at all. In so many ways – the topics, the prose, the form, etc. – there is so much Johnson in this book, but it lives confidently and compellingly apart. The scenes are claustrophobic and dire but I’m feeling a comfort and familiarity inside of them. Reading this book is enjoyable. Reading this book is like listening to an emo song that doesn’t suck really loud on your headphones (like Cap’n Jazz or the first Promise Ring album); it indulges whims and the poetry of adolescence without ever being cloying or cliched or losing its own voice. Anyone else reading Prose. Poems. A Novel. (or the chapbooks of its sections)?
