Common Time

by Chris Pusateri

Originally conceived as three discrete books, Common Time takes pianist Glenn Gould’s notion of the two-take as its procedural centerpiece, soldering together sections from each of the three finished versions and combining them to make one final work. But unlike Gould’s idea of an authoritative masterwork built from multiple versions of an original piece, Chris Pusateri turns the telescope backwards, making of this brokenness a meditation on what it means to compose, to couple, to comprehend.

“Common Time is a ‘collection’ in the best sense, a self-consciously accretive book; here, meanings precipitate out of the nonsense detritus of the working day and observations tighten into aphorism. Pusateri’s method exposes the paths that obstruct meaning and those that allow it to accrue: ‘There is a grid within/what we utter,/within phonemes, associations form/and dissolve like flies on bison.’ A humane, wise, and wicked smart book.”
– CATHERINE WAGNER

82 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2012

About the author

Chris Pusateri is a poet, critic, and librarian. Born in the American Midwest during the year of the Watergate burglary, he is the author of ten books of poetry, including Semblance (Dusie, 2013) and Common Time (Steerage, 2012), which was shortlisted for the Colorado Book Award. His work appears widely in literary periodicals and he serves as senior editor for Something on Paper, a multimedia journal of poetics and literary scholarship.

Reviews

[Patrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

james blish

[Ellie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won this on a goodreads give away.
For now I've only given this book 3 stars because I'm not 100% sure how I found this book. I enjoyed it, and got through it in a few hours. I plan on re-reading this book so I can give a more thorough review. A lot of it is very relevant, which adds to the enjoyment, although some I got a bit confused about. We'll see how the second reading goes!