Man

by Ricardo Pau-Llosa

Man is premised on the fact that most individuals in our culture have, over the last two generations especially, drifted beyond rebellion or rejection of spiritual matters into a purely worldly menu of causes to explain what occurs to them. Nonetheless, the spiritual―in a universal sense although here it is referenced by the Judeo-Christian tradition―retains, strangely, its capacity to condition and inform our sense of the man-character’s life.

96 pages, Paperback

First published February 4, 2014

About the author

Born in Havana in 1954, has lived in the United States since 1960. An avid collector of arts from the Americas and an inveterate smoker of fine cigars.

Reviews

[José Gutiérrez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pau-Llosa is at the top of his game. This surfeit of verse parables of a character, Man, reminds me of Ted Hughes' Crow and John Berryman's Dreamsongs. The everyday quotidian is elevated and sifted through the rich crucible of language, where a bakery, real estate shopping, Jupiter, heartbreak, lottery and leprosy, among others, serve as a springboard to existential inquiry which ultimately leads to transcendence and the most personal of victories. These poems feel lived-in and reek of ourselves in gorgeous metonymies of mind and world. We feel catapulted through the 'storied void' to find ourselves emerging hybrid, our feet dipped in the plasma pool of transformation. From Mustard Seed Man: 'A great bread, as some girl once told him/is what life is, molded to grow, spill forth/in sunset crusts to lick auroral hungers.' This is good shit. Highly recommend.