Nox

"No matter how I try to evoke the starry lad he was, it remains a plain, odd history."More an experience than a read, "Nox" by Anne Carson splices abstraction--definitions, quotations, lessons in ancient Greek history--with the concrete specificity of family photographs, handwritten letters, and personal recollections that attempt to contain a fragile and fragmented relationship. Carson's brother, who led a transitory and difficult life, has died in Copenhagen. And now Carson, in the manner of Catallus (poem 101), must go to see her brother's widow, the city where he lived, and the church he was brought to when he died. In words and images, and in words as images, Carson creates a landscape that mirrors memory--a continuous accordion-folded page that backdrops black and white snapshots, yellowing letters, cancelled stamps, and cut-out text. Most striking are the photos that include shadows, and texts that Carson repeats, strikes out, or blurs. Also haunting is the way this collage seems so very real on the reproduced page: edges of paper-on-paper look sharp and true, or wrinkled from too much glue; staples seem raised, shiny and cold; even the reverse-embossing of handwriting forces this reader to touch and expect to feel the raised imprint of a ball-point pen, as if, in feeling, the question is asked: is this real?Carson explains, "History and elegy are akin." In questioning, "are these staples real?" or "who was this brother?" we share in the act of asking, of composing the story and creating history. In her distilled and disjointed--yet accessible--way, Carson compels questions, collects facts--or shards of them--and assembles a beautiful, tactile, white-space filled elegy that honors a brother who, later in life, she barely knew. "You have survived it, " Carson writes, "and so you must carry it, or fashion it into a thing that carries itself." Carson has fashioned a thing that carries itself, a work of poetry and prose that stands on its own as book and non-book, object and message: an account of one's life as an extraordinary ordinary thing.

I adore Anne Carson. She may well be our (the English language’s) most compelling (insert “greatest” if you will) living poet. And I believe that NOX is (so far – hint hint) her masterwork.Poets must be in their essential being lateral above vertical thinkers. And she is supreme. All enters in, yet all belongs. And even a modestly attentive reader will easily be drawn in, and across and into their own thinking, their own lives.However, my “review” is mostly an entreaty. To Anne Carson, to New Directions. Though I completely understand the necessity of the folding structure of this work, I long for a “reading copy”. A paperback – even, heaven help us, a Kindle edition – so that I might more easily take it with me when I go . . . even a very small formatted paperback I could stick in my pocket, as readers used to do in the OLD DAYS.I need this work as a book to be with me, in addition to its marvelous place on my desk, ready to be unfolded . . . but only there with plenty of room to do so.

This is a wonderful "book," but much more. It is a box filled with pictures, notes, all kinds of memorabilia about a brother who left this earth way too early. Anne Carson is a genius, someone with incredible poetic gifts and great strength of mind, and Robert Currie, her "Randomizer" partner, helped her create this treasure box. We are all privileged to read and experience it.

First Off: My book arrived ahead of schedule in Excellent Condition from “Nana Pie’s Book Nook”in CT, a Veteran owned & run business. I’ve wanted this work since it’s publication, but then there was “the price” 😱. A bit steep for me, and so I waited.Couldn’t be happier with the book or my experience with this seller. Let’s Support Our Vets !Now to delve into this beautifully conceived and executed book…Like a treasure from the past. 😉

Anne Carson's Nox allows us to feel like we have gone through parts of or remainders from her scrapbook. torn bits of photos and text make up this xylophone-open-out book which, if we are in a room large enough, can spread across the vastness of a space and remind us of the literal line of a life, the lifeline of the brother lost, sought, recalled, reached at or through or towards in this lovely book put out by New Directions at what seems to me to be a strikingly affordable price for such an item. Contained in a box, Nox is like something we have pulled out of the attic and dive into, exploring for what it contains, but also for what it evokes in each of us.

This is poetry as memorial and history in a fine example of the book maker's art.

This work is quite perplexing. In some ways it is magnificent, but in other ways it may fail your expectations - depending on what you are expecting. Rather than giving just one rating, I'd prefer to give the book several ratings:Book as physical and visual artwork: 5 out of 5Book as conceptual poetry: 4 out of 5Book as traditional novel: 2 out of 5Personally I loved to skim the book randomly, but to read it trough from cover to cover (as I eventually did) was clearly not the best way to enjoy this book, at least for me. The fragmented memories of his brother were at times touching and full of complex emotions. The repeating definitions of latin words were a bit tiresome at times, but still quite educative and hence interesting.I would say that this book is at its best as an experimental poetic artwork and surely is an unique and at times touching curiosity on any book-lovers shelve. But don't approach the book as a traditional novel - there it will fail you.