The Corpses of the Future - Softcover

Crosbie, Lynn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1487000901 ISBN 13: 9781487000905

Publisher: House of Anansi Press, 2017

Synopsis

The Corpses of the Future is a sustained, confessional new collection of poems by Lynn Crosbie. It tells the story of her father’s battle with frontotemporal dementia and blindness, following a stroke. The poems chronologically recount the poet’s conversations and time with her father, and capture his still-astonishing means of communicating. The book’s title is his, sardonic, remark. Crosbie considers, strategically, dementia to be a symbolic language and as such, similar to poetry. The author’s attempts to understand her father’s distress, pain, fear, and brave love are assisted by her understanding of the negative capability” required of readers of poetry.

This is a harrowing book, with moments of joy and even levity. It is a collection of poetry about love, and love’s persistence, even under the most unspeakable circumstances.

About this title

About the Author:

Lynn Crosbie was born in Montreal and is a cultural critic, author, and poet. A Ph.D in English literature with a background in visual studies, she teaches at the University of Toronto and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Her books (of poetry and prose) include Pearl, Queen Rat, and Dorothy L'Amour. She is also the author of the controversial book, Paul's Case and most recently, Life Is About Losing Everything and Where Did You Sleep Last Night. She is a contributing editor at Fashion, and a National Magazine Award Winner who has written about sports, style, art, and music.

Review:

Praise for Lynn Crosbie and Where Did You Sleep Last Night:

Lynn Crosbie is what a great writer should be: pissed off, bereft, misunderstood, impolite, funny, and in love with the madness of the world.” Miriam Toews, author of All My Puny Sorrows and A Complicated Kindness

Where Did You Sleep Last Night is terrifying and beautiful. It is a thrift store jam packed with once loved, tattered, and gorgeous images. Crosbie is as mad as Rimbaud, as sweet as Keats, and as debauched as Courtney Love. Kurt Cobain would have adored her.” Heather O’Neill, author of The Girl Who Was Saturday Night and Lullabies for Little Criminals

Lynn Crosbie’s Where Did You Sleep Last Night is a brilliant portrait of romance, rages, passionate reunions, the emptiness of fame, and the devastating losses that afflict two doomed rock stars locked in a heart-shaped box. Every sentence is poetry. I predict this book will, like Kurt Cobain, develop its own cult following.” Jowita Bydlowska, author of Drunk Mom

Praise for Lynn Crosbie and Life Is About Losing Everything:

It’s almost terrifying how deep this book goes, and how quickly it gets there. I’ve sometimes wondered if I’ve lost my ability to feel the world in a certain way, and this book reminded me that I haven’t.” Douglas Coupland

Praise for Lynn Crosbie and Liar:
Not since Margaret Atwood’s Power Politics has the love poem been this honest, this intelligent, this gripping. Imagine yourself in the middle of an autopsy, only to find the heart still beating.” Michael Turner

About this edition

• Publisher: House of Anansi Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1487000901
• ISBN 13: 9781487000905
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160