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My Favorite Apocalypse
A lively, fresh, and outspoken debut, My Favorite Apocalyse reveals the poetical influence of W.B. Yeats as well as that of Mick Jagger. "Everything in my life led up / to my inappropriate laughter," Rosemurgy writes. With a deep sense of irony and sharp-edged wit, she shows readers why the cruelties of relationships, inevitable bad luck, and soul-searching rock-n-roll deserve both cynicism and reverence.
- GenresPoetry
72 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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About the author
Catie Rosemurgy
4 books19 followersCatie Rosemurgy is the author of the poetry collections The Stranger Manual and My Favorite Apocalypse. Her work has appeared in the American Poetry Review, Ploughshares, and Best American Poetry. She lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania."
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 15, 2012
Catie Rosemurgy, My Favorite Apocalypse (Graywolf Press, 2001)
Here we are just barely into February and I'm already proclaiming that I've read the first book this year that's guaranteed to find a place on my Best Reads of 2012 list. The kid picked this one up for me seemingly at random on a trip with her mom, and boy did she hit this one out of the park. Delicious, stunning poetry that understands the difference between sensual and sexual, allowing various pieces to have different mixes of the two coming together, letting the collection (which is, for the most part, relentlessly single-minded in its pursuit of pleasure) veer between sultry, slatternly, and sinless at will, and with a great deftness. That does lead to a bit of jarring when Rosemurgy turns her head away from the sexy and focuses on another topic (there is an elegaic poem here, and while it is as accomplished as anything else to be found in the book, it seems a tad out of place), but no matter; Rosemurgy is the type of poet who will seduce you with her words no matter what the subject matter. She could be writing about the migratory habits of the Abbysinian sea-snail and I'd probably still find my head filled with some sort of lustful (albeit, in that case, extremely odd) fantasy. Rosemurgy hit it pretty big in 2010 with The Stranger Manual, which ended up on a lot of best-of-the-year lists I read; track this one down and see where it all began. This is fine, fine stuff indeed. **** ½
Here we are just barely into February and I'm already proclaiming that I've read the first book this year that's guaranteed to find a place on my Best Reads of 2012 list. The kid picked this one up for me seemingly at random on a trip with her mom, and boy did she hit this one out of the park. Delicious, stunning poetry that understands the difference between sensual and sexual, allowing various pieces to have different mixes of the two coming together, letting the collection (which is, for the most part, relentlessly single-minded in its pursuit of pleasure) veer between sultry, slatternly, and sinless at will, and with a great deftness. That does lead to a bit of jarring when Rosemurgy turns her head away from the sexy and focuses on another topic (there is an elegaic poem here, and while it is as accomplished as anything else to be found in the book, it seems a tad out of place), but no matter; Rosemurgy is the type of poet who will seduce you with her words no matter what the subject matter. She could be writing about the migratory habits of the Abbysinian sea-snail and I'd probably still find my head filled with some sort of lustful (albeit, in that case, extremely odd) fantasy. Rosemurgy hit it pretty big in 2010 with The Stranger Manual, which ended up on a lot of best-of-the-year lists I read; track this one down and see where it all began. This is fine, fine stuff indeed. **** ½
April 4, 2007
Catie will pull your heart up through your nostril, feed you a slice and make you ask for seconds.
August 8, 2007
This is the only book of poetry I can read straight through like a novel. It is so freaking wonderful.
January 4, 2011
A good collection, but Rosemurgy really improved between this and The Stranger Manual.
April 8, 2012
This collection is electric, bluesy & seductive.
Amy Gerstler says it best 'It has a confiding, urgent, lit-up tone. These poems whisper, croon, lip sync, and shout about what women and girls contemplate in the privacy of their minds: promises, cravings, divinations, and their surprise at how our skins barely contain us as we blaze through our days'.
Amy Gerstler says it best 'It has a confiding, urgent, lit-up tone. These poems whisper, croon, lip sync, and shout about what women and girls contemplate in the privacy of their minds: promises, cravings, divinations, and their surprise at how our skins barely contain us as we blaze through our days'.
August 12, 2011
beautiful, personal and painful
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews