Death Egg

by Nathaniel Duggan

Death Egg is a collection of poems about unemployment, love, jellyfish, despair, and apocalypses. Each poem is a bleak, dense rumination on contemporary American life, creating both powerful levity and despair with its exploration of the banal through dramatic, video game-like conceits, honing in on the uniquely modern insanity of knowing everything and nothing all at once. Cinematically blown out yet earnest, unique yet relatable: this is the final egg, the death egg, fortress of loss and takeout receipts...

Genres: Poetry

98 pages, Paperback

Published September 15, 2023

Reviews

[Graham Irvin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great collection. Like nature poetry written by someone who reads manga instead of going outside.

[KKUURRTT · Rating 5 out of 5]

Killer poems. Took me months to read because I wanted to savor them.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

i know the author and i am very proud of him :’)

[Logan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nathaniel Duggan’s Death Egg reads like a stash of notes crumpled up in a bar bathroom, but that bar is in the deep reaches of space, and they serve breakfast all day. The perfect balance of science fiction and poetry. It’s got everything: tragedy, love, comedy, the spiraling of hope bursting into flames in the atmosphere and gravitational pull of a giant egg or robot insect, or love. Death Egg takes the indie lit world by the eye balls and turns it into a black hole of oozing golden egg yolk, and we’re all just swimming in it like jelly fish. There’s a lot of gems in here, my personal favorite being “Immune Escape”.

[Rose Jeanou · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book because the author is funny on twitter. This supports my hypothesis the ability to write funny tweets is similar to the ability to be a good poet. The author and I aren’t even oomfies or anything so this is completely nonbiased, btw.

I thought this collection was absolutely amazing. Exactly what modern poetry should strive to be/do: funny, relevant, evocative. Poems about unemployment, alcoholism, loneliness, giant insects, robots, laser beams, love, geopolitics, the internet.

I hope more people can get their eyes on this collection, since it is indie published and thus might suffer from difficulties in marketing/exposure, but it does for real deserve attention!

[Clover Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

“the world is a shape / that should’ve been made / to fit me.”

This collection is a dynamic, eclectic spread of pieces that were undeniably memorable. Themes and devices such as tasteful vulgarity, beer, robots, sea creatures, and love are written with such synergy that you’d almost think they are synonymous to each other. I appreciated the humor—done in a way that wasn’t calling attention to itself, intentionally wedged between bouts of deep self-reflection—as little reprieves from painful subject matter, as painful as the lovingly mentioned hangover. Would recommend to poets and poetry lovers alike who value balancing laughter and whimsy with the bottomless ocean floor.

[T.J. Larkey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional example of why independent literature started up in the first place. But all the usual shit has already been covered (humor, heart, etc.) so I'm going to talk about other things.

Out of all the current indie figures (delusional cumfarts, all of you), Mr. Duggan is the only writer that I see as a true equal, maybe even someone to envy, slyly compete with (this review is as much about me as it is about the book, don't pretend you don't do it too--albeit more camouflaged, snake-like), he is a genius, the ideal working-class man, a man that suffers far more than you (but not me).

And before the thought crosses your mind--no--we are not friends. We have never spoken. For this fact alone, you should believe me, believe this glowing review.

Is this only a short poetry collection, only 75 pages or so, and not nearly the literary achievement of, say, a "heartfelt and honest," "one of the best debuts I've ever read" novel (I have a profile on here, look for Venice, same publisher, available from their website, and Amazon)? Well, the answer is yes. But it is also singularly beautiful, the kind of book that gives me hope, knifing through the endless tsunami of shit like an ancient battle-scarred great white killing all who stand in its way.

I will buy every single one of Mr. Duggan's follow up books, no matter who puts it out (most of you disgust me too--quit publishing horror shit and cool-kid cosplay vomit that somehow still pales in comparison to the Big 5 circle-jerkers they're trying so hard to emulate [I have two unpublished manuscripts and you can reach me on Twitter or here on Goodreads. Thanks!!!]).

[crowjonah · Rating 5 out of 5]

From within the false balm of a hard shell and with the grandiosity of a final boss battle, Duggan plumbs the endless devastation of domestic disappointment, the impossibility of intimacy, gleeful villainy, and suffocating righteousness. Death Egg good.

[J. Schneider · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very well crafted and poignant collection of poetry. Just enough technical prowess to impress a learned reader and enough grit to please the experimental nut cases. The imagery used such as divorce and Sonic add a flavor to the poems in a tasteful way.

[David Catney · Rating 5 out of 5]

and when the death egg arrived, i welcomed it with open arms.

[New York Times official book reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to this book I can see a beauty in video games that I haven't seen since I was twelve years old. Thank you Nathaniel Duggan. I hope to become unemployed sometime soon.

[Ted Prokash]

Read it all in one sitting. Kind of seemed like a trick. And I must say, I was not encouraged by the fact that I was HUMILIATED by the CORPORATE CHICANERY perpetrated by Black Patio Press by where they encouraged honest folks to purchase this book, when it was not even EXISTENT yet, but only the centerpiece of some PRE-ORDER SCAM–to the point where I messaged the publisher asking..."um...sir...sorry, but I, uh, believe I paid for Nathanial Duggan's Death Egg several weeks ago, and..." to which the publisher was like, "uh, yeah, DUDE, it's on PREorder." Fuuck off. Well I did get the book in fairly timely fashion I suppose, but not before I had been HUMILIATED and practically RAPED in the sense of my loss of pride in the public forum of the private messages of twitter!!

The poems were good. They were good. Though I had the feeling that I had read nearly all of them before. And brief. So very brief. Really there's nothing much funner than Nathaniel Duggan's twitter. A body can have a right laugh or three sitting down to Nathan's twitter, I tell ya! The nut of the issue here is: why pay for a book that's thinner than my foreskin (I'm circumcised) when you can get the splooge for free. As it were. These millennials, or whatever they are, have a lot to learn about business.

[Matthew Porter · Rating 5 out of 5]

DEATH EGG contains some of the best poetry I've read in the last ten years. The poems sardonic but not detached, cursory but encompassing, lively yet wracked with dread. Duggan's speakers are not in their worlds but of them, painting their concrete walls with whatever their hands can get ahold of. What can one make of a world where artifice may be made genuine, a world so malleable that mendacity has become so inflated it subsumes truth? DEATH EGG has these answers and others you weren't even aware you were searching for.

[Emily Chang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Death Egg is refreshing in the way that realizing that you're just gonna die is refreshing. apocalyptic, horny, and lonely - what else could you want in a modern poetry collection? I like the fixations on tiny elements of our technological, capitalist world, like Honda civic cupholders and a Sams Club Membership card. Cool plays on evolution and DNA. the violence is intentionally sanitized, making for a dissociative read.

fav poems: atomic bomb poem, tentacle porn blues, nature haiku ft matsuo basho

[Walker · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s was ok maybe even good

[Alexander Day · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kmart Surrealism folded in on itself a thousand times forming a blade to cut your way out of the womb. あら! It seems you've cut your way back in instead.

[Viviana Olvera · Rating 5 out of 5]

best book ive ever peed on

[Ian Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection feels like watching a bootleg VHS of Angel's Egg on a tube TV at 2am in an unlit living room (in a good way).

[Bobby Vanecko]

reread, still great 👍

[Bridget Handrahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jellyfish and despair make a very fine pair

[Corporate Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know anything about poetry but I liked this. Surreal, fantasticical, very moving in moments, very funny in others.

Really enjoyed it.

[Nick Nolte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read from front to back

[Michael Washington · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can’t believe this book came out exactly one year ago. Nathaniel Duggan’s poems made me the man I am today and I hope he knows I was only kidding when I told him to kill himself on Twitter.

[Blake Middleton · Rating 5 out of 5]

tonally and thematically, the poems are really consistent, and i ended up reading straight through the whole thing in a kind of trance-like state because of that, i think, which i liked a lot. there will be a nice image or poetic thing going on and the next line will be about pissing your pants at wal-mart or showing porn to gorillas at the zoo or something, so the poems always feel balanced and not self-serious or too bleak or whatever. each poem built off the one before it and ultimately lead to a revelatory/beautiful ending. these poems work great as a collection is what i’m saying. duggan should be the mayor/poet laureate of farmington, maine and be given a key to the roost so he can drink as much beer as he wants forever. my favorites were: i’ve seen so much ass on the internet i’ve become numb to it, sad little lobster gurgles, and king kong. definitely one of my favorite poets rn. always look forward to new stuff. so yeah buy this book, read it, then piss all over it. soak it in piss

[Adam Paxton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I never fucking use Goodreads cause it just seems like a place for people to read self help books and YA to show everyone that they do in fact read. But this book was so fucking good I thought I'd not only use Goodreads, but leave a review too (Since the author is currently alive and it could benefit him in a small way. Leaving a review of something like Anna Karenina or Lolita always seemed pointless). Also since I didn't buy it (I was sent it) I felt like I should do something to benefit the author.

This is a dumb book about wanking and Sonic and Metroid and love and mental health and many other things. It's brutally honest and emotive without ever succumbing to cliche or being sappy or self-pitying.

It raised my sperm count. Everyone I know is pregnant. I piss like a horse. When I sleep, I sleep 7 percent faster than the average man. My calves have grown two square inches and it's all thanks to this book. Read it you filthy fucking animals.

[Christian McDonough · Rating 5 out of 5]

Death egg review

I read this book a while ago. It was really fun and sincere and beautiful and vivid, etc.
The poems often skirted the edge of coherence to me. When some cohered into a nice unified thing, the feeling they generated was really moving.

I suspect those that didn’t give me that feeling might be able to make me feel that way if I re-read them. Like, I would need to be in the right frame of mind to understand it.

There was also a really strong theme of the world being hollowed out of meaning, I think. Kind of like Beaudrillard’s idea of simulacra. And there’s a kind of reveling in these grandiose ideas of destruction or world-altering events juxtaposed with mundane every-day life.

It feels like there’s a yearning for something real to happen, but in the end its no different than anything else, nothing will change, etc.

I’m not sure though, it’s been a while since I read it.

Good job!!!

[Josh Sherman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whenever I see Nathaniel's work come up in my Twitter feed, I immediately stop shitposting to read it and am better for it.

That was the blurb I wrote for this book before I read this book.

Having now read this book (about a month ago) and forgotten to review on Goodreads, I am posting the blurb as the beginning of a brief review, since I still stand behind it. Reading this book has not lowered Nathaniel Duggan in my estimation at all. In fact, I probably think of him in a slightly higher esteem as an artist. Physical books will do this sometimes. These are good off-kilter poems that are somehow still accessible. Very much poems but not too "poem-y."

Anyways, I think I have now fulfilled my obligation to Back Patio Press in general and Zac Smith in particular. Thank you for the advanced reader copy!

[Ryan Bry · Rating 5 out of 5]

The bottom of the ocean is a terrible place to go blind.

poetry by Nathaniel Duggan

The thing I really love about this writing is it explores all the energetic potentials of depression, giving it an active personality that's actually hardly ever negative. It brings out the aspect of depression that makes the world more exciting, and all of the sea creature science stuff builds upon that vibrancy. The angle of this book is one of sly wonder and a commitment to hilarity. I felt a lot of myself in this book, when I was aloud to glint the raging light within. Nathaniel writes with the source of a paradox and we all get to witness the organism of it that thrives on the brink of a spasm. Captivating writing, dude. Take it easy and keep getting into it.

Ryan✌️

[Downward · Rating 3 out of 5]

fairly traditional poetry in the depressed person referencing pop culture model, using a free verse to lay out different scenarios of interaction between emotion and the very strange world we live in; sometimes it does this thing that I've come to determine that I don't like where the title of the poem is like a little joke that leads you into the poem itself, - the title sometimes basically as long as the poem itself - which feels novel in its own right but gives you a heads up about the author's keeping you at arms length via humor so that they can try to Trojan horse some emotions in there while still being a "hey I don't take things too seriously" guy, which sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't.

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the resurgence of alt - lit this book is like the doorknob to that movement. A big, brass doorknob. Typical in it's appearance and size. But Nate is a lil Caulkin sitting behind the staircase waiting for you to open, rifle and rummage through this house of poetry.

That dasterdly little sh*t places discrete and unassuming hijinks, kaiju and cheesy nachos throughout. Each is ready to send your booty down a staircase with one depressing big blow.

Wanna cartoonishly rip your insides out? Want a book that'll tear your frontal lobe from your brain and send it down through the deepest pits of your butthole?

Pick this book up. take it for a spin. ride it like a bull.