Solar Perplexus

by Dean Young

In Solar Perplexus, Dean Young uses the surreal as the thread which weaves in and out of complications of existence. The result is a textured, honest work that grapples with what it means to love, lose, and hang in the afterward. Suddenly the boundaries of our everyday are shaken―and yet instead of being thrown off balance, our understanding is cracked open. Young holds us between un/reality, tracing the circle of life and death, and exposing the true closeness between extremes. It is this true intimacy that both unsettles and comforts. Solar Perplexus turns identity on its head as it questions self (against) control, with each eerily familiar moment of humor punctuated with an inevitable doubt.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

Published June 22, 2021

About the author

Dean Young is the author of many collections of poetry, including Shock by Shock, Bender: New and Selected Poems, and Elegy on a Toy Piano, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He teaches at the University of Texas, Austin.

Reviews

[tillie lefforge]

“But always there was my darling who’d kiss me even though the pulse-spike would bring nurses running.”

“it’s ok to feel like you’re watching you own murder with a butterscotch in your mouth”

“Just because something doesn’t exist doesn’t mean it’s not dropping petals into your vodka right now.”

“Sad child at the zoo, how the hooks of your empathy get stuck in the elephant swaying foot to foot slowly going insane.”

Thank u dean. Motifs asf

[C. Varn]

Dean Young always has always to make you feel strange: “What strange wolves we’ve welcomed to our waltz.” Young is the wolf at his own waltz and the dedication to the late Tomaz Salamun and James Tate indicates that his surreal imaginary and shocking turns-of-phrase will be employed for something kind an elegy and celebration at once. It delivers in weird turns of phrase and strange moments, but it won't be a collection for everyone.

[Scott Pomfret]

The title "Solar Perplexus" gives away Dean Young's project: he is out to have fun, but not averse to a punch in the gut. Here's the opening of his poem "Red Hots On A Cupcake":

When having sex, I much prefer
someone else having sex
on the other end. Or the same end.
Or without end.

Young's poems are disarmingly various, with mind-thrilling connections drawn between images that do not immediately suggest any connectivity. Random is not the right word, though there are some (weaker) poems that beg the question WTF and not in a good way. Most are better than this, a skidding, tripping, tumbling rush of electric and fleshy elements. Best of all, Young pulls this off with a loving attention to the sounds of words. This music alone, consisting of alliteration, internal rhyme, unusual rhythm, and a thousand other games with words that are consonant but disparate in meaning is a true delight. This collection could have been called, How to Have Fun With Contemporary Poetry.

[Benjamin Niespodziany]

“What strange wolves we’ve welcomed to our waltz.”

No one writes like Dean. Throw emotions into a blender alongside some of the sharpest imagery around and you have another wondrous collection.

Any book dedicated to both James Tate and Tomas Salamun is a book I want to to read.

From ‘Early Study in Levitation’:

“Some people just let their bunnies run wild, some study clouds, some spend all day in the graveyard falling in love. They’re the scientists of spring and we can’t do without them.”

[Steve Brock]

This book was a Best of the Best for the month of October, 2019, as selected by Stevo's Book Reviews on the Internet / Stevo's Nobel Ideas. You can find me at http://forums.delphiforums.com/stevo1, on my Stevo's Novel Ideas Amazon Influencer page (https://www.amazon.com/shop/stevo4747), on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Stevo4747), on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/brocksteve/) or search for me on Google for many more reviews and recommendations.

[Justin]

True to Young's signature style, I'll try to convey in three rapid-fire similes what it's like to read his work: it's like white-water rafting a mudslide; it's like competing in American Gladiators, each meaningless point earned while being pummeled by bodybuilders; it's like binge-watching a Chopped marathon, but actually having to eat everything they make.

[naviya]

- i have a very hard time seperating ppl from their art esp if they are known to be shitty to other ppl irl
- i get really excited abt surrealism but i alot if cishetwhite men just use surrealism as a means for their misogyny and racism // metaphorical misogyny is still misogyny

[Shawn Aebi]

I simply don't have enough acid in my house to understand this poetry collection.

[Sarah]

Always good, though nothing that knocked my socks off here. Feels like a snapshot in time around when he received a heart transplant. That is, very personal, little veiled.

[Seth Arnopole]

I like a bit of surrealism, but I can't follow a number of these poems. I am intrigued enough to try another of Young's collections, though.

[Sraah]

and the flower wants teeth and you
can stand in your own kitchen
and still be miles from yourself.