Clarice: The Visitor (Volume 23)

by Idra Novey, Erica Baum (Illustrator)

In this addition to the Cahier Series, through two sequences of poems, American poet Idra Novey explores several notions of translation. In the first sequence, Letters to Clarice, she channels her recent experience of translating work by the Brazilian novelist Clarice Lispector, sending Lispector poems in the form of letters. In the second sequence, Regarding Marmalade, Cognates, and Visitors, she discovers in what way translating relates to the activity of hosting visitors, most important of whom is her newborn son. Idra Novey’s texts are complemented by illustrations by the artist Erica Baum, whose images of books both invite and resist attempts to read them.

Genres: Poetry

36 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2014

About the author

Idra Novey is the author of TAKE WHAT YOU NEED, a New York Times Notable Book of 2023 and one of The New Yorker's Best Books of the Year. The novel is set in the Allegheny Highlands of Appalachia where parts of her family have lived for over a century.

Her earlier novels include THOSE WHO KNEW and WAYS TO DISAPPEAR, a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize for First Fiction. She's written for The Atlantic, The New York Times, and The Guardian. Her fiction and poetry have been translated into a dozen languages. Her new book of poems, SOON AND WHOLLY, will be published in 2024.

Reviews

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Purchased this book at an interview reception for this author.

Lovely little book. Sat and read it for the first time to the accompaniment of a bell choir. Great experience. Idra writes poems as letters in response to quotations from the author she has been translating as well a set of poems about visitors to her own home, some from around the world, one commemorating her own son. The book is illustrated.

I immediately loaned it to a friend to share. Will read the poems again.

Amazon blurb: "Idra Novey's texts are in conversation with works by the artist Erica Baum - images of books that seem both to invite and resist attempts to read them."

Idra Novey's work here is very much about one language expressed in another -- the challenges of translation.

Stay tuned for a review of Exit, Civilian , the second book of Idra's I purchased today. Idra views herself as having a citizen relationship to the worlds she captures in poetry.

[Anthony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this chapbook. Poems about how the intensity of translating Clarice Lispector – Lispector as daily visitor – affects the poets’ life, and also poems about actuall overnight visitors who “scramble the syntax of daily life.” So many beautiful, insightful lines. A few of my favorites: “I said vapor, just take me./I’m done burning/with these pages”; “But I have to go – my sons/want me to speak in puppet./So it is performing your words:”

In the poem December, in the section on visitors to her apartment, Novey tells of a guest who is constantly texting—through meals, conversations, etc. The poem ends with the texting guest saying: “. . . Idra,/querida, never seen you/look better.” Simply one of the best line breaks I’ve read in a long time.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book. Highly recommend.

[Noreen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book in every way. Poems on translation as a kind of visitation by the immensely gifted Novey paired with images by the artist Erika Baum. These Sylph Editions are beautiful objects, too; I now want to buy every one of them.

[Vicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can't stop letting my hand slide across the texture of these pages. So beautiful. The paper. Mainly that's what I liked about this book.