The Book of Frank

by C.A. Conrad

A visceral, surrealist tale of becoming, from the shamanic cult hero of contemporary queer poetry

Beguiling, outrageous, playfully morbid and frequently stunning in its surreal flights of imagination, The Book of Frank follows the eponymous figure as he grows from his troubled childhood into an adult travesty of the ostensibly straight family man in a male-dominated world. Along the way, he navigates a series of darkly comic situations, commits acts of grotesque violence, loses his soul in the post and debates boundary lines with a pig. Frank is one of the great literary creations: a man who can declare that 'however we seek another's weakness is our tyranny', as often touchingly innocent as he is monstrously cruel.

Called 'a contemporary masterpiece' by Thurston Moore, a 'desert island book' by Anne Boyer and 'this generation's Dream Songs' by Maggie Nelson, The Book of Frank is one of the crucial poetic works of this century so far. Now, on the 30th anniversary of the first Frank poems' appearance, it is published in the UK for the first time.

Genres: Poetry, Queer, LGBT, Fiction, American, Research, School

160 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2009

About the author

CAConrad’s childhood included selling cut flowers along the highway for his mother and helping her shoplift. He is the author of 9 books of poetry and essays the latest While Standing In Line For Death is forthcoming from Wave Books in September 2017. He is a Pew Fellow and has also received fellowships from Lannan Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Headlands Center for the Arts, Banff, RADAR, Flying Ojbect and Ucross. For his books, essays, and details on the documentary The Book of Conrad (Delinquent Films, 2016), please visit http://CAConrad.blogspot.com

Reviews

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was reading this on BART last night and these flamboyant tourists get on and one of them has to sit by me, and he's taking flash pictures the whole trip over and over, and then he put his camera down his pants, and takes a picture, and then says "I can't believe I just did that." And I'm thinking I can't believe he just did that. I think Frank made him do it.

[Jeff Jackson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Feel especially churlish rating this according to the usual star system. One of its projects is exploding the polite rules and established boundaries used to judge whether a poem is successful, so I'm giving it five stars simply to say "Hey, you should read this."

[Marcus · Rating 5 out of 5]

WOW! WOW! and WOW! I needed this. I mean needed it. And that doesn't happen often. Sometimes I like books of poetry. Sometimes I love books of poetry. And sometimes, rarely, I absolutely need a book of poetry or song/album at different points/stages/times in life!!!

This is a need right now. I am alive!

Get it! If you haven't already. It is not all hype. CA Conrad must have one hell of a heart and mind.

Expansive in all the best meanings of that term. Frank. I love you!

[Taylor Griggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think…maybe…I don’t get it…

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. These poems are not only fabulously surreal but downright funny at times.

And anyone who uses a cowboy here and there gets my vote:

Frank added the milk to the
Instant Cowboy Mix and
herded himself into the
living room

This is the first book I have read that comes amazingly close to doing what I've been trying to do with my poems the last three years. I'm in love.

[Esmé · Rating 4 out of 5]

awfully enlivening!

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why yes, I finished this in less than 24 hours. Less than 1 hour, in fact. How can you put this book down? This is not a book you put down. This is a book that you read straight through, read the Eileen Myles outro in the back, and then flip right to the front again to read back through and determine which pages of this excellent book are really truly your favorites, you know, if you find it possible to pick. I borrowed this book, but I feel as though I NEED a copy, to own, to revisit, to keep around for when I need something like this. Why I hadn't read this sooner is--well, I should have. But I'm glad I have read it now.

[Michelle Taransky · Rating 5 out of 5]

You are not the Frank in these poems...

Merged review:

Everytime I read these poems, I learn things about myself I didn't know before. Yesterday, The Book of Frank taught me about gardening on the moon.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

This kind of changed my mind about what poetry could be like. This opened something up for me which makes me feel like I have a new way to go about writing poetry. I love this. This feels personal to me. Yes. This. Forever.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

(everyone by now knows that) CA Conrad is magical, but this very early book reminds us that he's been wielding this ecstatic, strange, and mischievous magic for a looong time.

[ashtyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 ★ this felt like a fever dream in the best possible way. a fever dream that creates a persona to tell you a story about yourself and the world you live in. this is definitely not for everyone, but if you like things that don’t fully make sense until they do make sense and then your world gets rocked, you’ll love the book of frank !

[Lars Meijer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ogenschijnlijk eenvoudige gedichten, waardoor ik bij een eerste lezing nog niet helemaal gegrepen was. Ik vond een spannend en teder werk bij het herlezen. Ik ken talloze mensen wie ik dit cadeau kan doen. Is het niet eens tijd voor een Nederlandse vertaling van een Conrad bundel?

[Mic Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

A true epic. I feel lucky this book arrived in this lifetime.

[Rauan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful book..... In preparing for an interview that I did with the author I read it through 4 or 5 times and certain poems more than that.
Certain poems are truly marvelous.

If you're interested the interview's at

http://rauanklassnik.blogspot.com/200...

[Mattilda]

The Book of Frank is what children’s books would be like if we allowed children to know what they know. Intimate, elegant, explosive, contradictory, fucked-up and beautiful.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is amazing! Read it at once. It will change your life. It is one of the most imaginative books I've read in years.

[J.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why haven't you read this yet?

[Femke Zwiep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lord or Toad?
Lord or Toad?

Lord

or

Toad?



CaConrad just gets it okkkkk

[Janine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely one of the best poetry books I’ve ever read. Constant whiplash of emotions. All-timer right here.

[Nancy Lewis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absurdist and surrealist so it's not for everyone but I enjoyed it.

[Jamie ⚢ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Awfully concerned for my poetry teacher 😭 I have mixed feelings, but overall I think this book is a bit too bold for me. Some great writing in here.

[Brielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't like poetry. Finished this in ~2hrs, made me feel weird. CAConrad is an odd man but I'd likely buy his works again if I ever saw them.

[Jesica · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were some images and word play that I really enjoyed but otherwise I thought this book was meh. I would categorize this book with books such as My Therapist Said, Sarah, and Cruddy. You have an off kilter character with an off kilter life. And you're not sure if you exactly believe your character exists, in real life and on the page. Which makes me smile because of course your character doesn't really exist in real life, but sometimes when you read a character can become so real. Unfortunately, that didn't really happen to Frank for me. There were moments where some lines were cute and that's how I would sum up this book, cute. Sorry CAConrad. Conrad has dug himself a hole but hopefully he can dig himself out. I would be interested to see where he went or is going with his writing now.

While I read this book I also read Turandot, John Ashbery's first book of poems. It was quite a stark contrast. Turandot obviously is very academic, Ashbery's images or word play are definitely geared towards the academia, which I hate, but Conrad's word play is the complete opposite, for those who frequent bars, or maybe I mean pubs. I would have preferred to be met somewhere in the middle.

[Dean Kritikos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely incredible. I'm reminded of _Autobiography of Red_ by Anne Carson. Conrad's book is so incredibly vivid, heart-straining, eye-opening...and, at points, very funny. Frank is innocent, I think, and the vulnerability that Conrad is able to play upon strikes a register that makes me hopeful for communication between people any/everywhere who have lived and loved (suffered)--that is, across boundaries we are accustomed to think are impossible to cross. Frank's multiplicity, which Eileen Myles' great essay in this edition touches on, makes him (/her, /they, /us) all the more accessible to any and every reader. I think I love these poems most for confirming that it's okay, no matter what, to be a child.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

even though i'm not immediately "getting" every poem, this book is rekindling my faith in poetry. that people still write it, that it is a valid means of expression, that it can be new and fresh and tell a cogent story.

saying you don't get poetry is so teenage. what does it even mean? it's sort of like you're driving down a very windy road and you're listening to the radio and the radio is broadcasting the poem. and sometimes when you round a bend, the rocks or a tree or something gets in the way of the radio signals and you lose the transmission. sometimes when you read a poem you just hear static.

[Joe Imwalle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel like I give 5 stars too easily but what can I say...I loved reading this book of unexpected poems. It's weird and surprising and creative and filled with poems that made me laugh out loud. It's not what you think of when you think of poetry. It's like a contemporary Dream Songs by John Berryman. In fact, I think there's even a Dream Songs reference: "Frank met Huffy Henry sulking in a dream song/ and zapped him/ with a miniaturizing gun." More accessible and enjoyable than Berryman, although some parts are decidedly off-putting and disturbing. Still, I look forward to rereading it multiple times.

[C.A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

FOR A 3 MINUTE FILM ON THE BOOK OF FRANK
go to http://BookOfFrank.blogspot.com


most of this video is of me reading from The Book of Frank for POETEEVEE, click here: http://vimeo.com/8630373

poet Eileen Myles has just interviewed me about The Book of Frank for The Poetry Foundation, which you can see here: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/journ...

SAMPLE POEMS from this book available here http://BOOKOFFRANK.blogspot.com



Merged review:

http://BookOfFrank.blogspot.com

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this sort of poetry cycle. It's like an intimate portrait of one person's life, or a life in poems. It really takes off in part three of the book and then the afterword by Eileen Myles wraps it up quite nicely. Note to Wave Books: I'm getting a little bored of your recent book cover style.

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

When this was recommended to me, it was described as the "weirdest character study you'll ever read" and I'm not sure anything else needs to be said. It's easy to read this book in 45mins, but I recommend you spend days/weeks with it.

[Juliano · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Frank’s tears began to fall // someone ripped his doors open // they filled him for an hour”. In CA Conrad’s strange and comical condensed epic, The Book of Frank, the poem’s eponymous protagonist moves from childhood to adulthood through turmoil and suffering. “something inside him / spread its wings // something intending / to stay”; “anyone who / can’t see / he’s a boy / at heart / is blind / to hearts”. His manhood is plagued by insufficiency, or rather by unrealistic societal demands and expectations: “every night / Frank dissolves / into the sheets // not a man / but a stain […] he rises / stuttering / into light / more mineral / than man”. He comes to rage against what he should be in favour of who he must be. “when I was a boy / I stepped into the sky / and I was a boy / not a surrealist! // part of the dream / is that you accept / your waking life as / part of the dream.” “Frank is a / young boy / asleep in / ancient / Tibet // what you / thought was / your life is / really his / dream // he may / wake at any / moment”. CA Conrad takes, to quote Eileen Myles’ afterword, “an entirely cinematic approach the way a film never stays still or wants to”, resulting in a work that is endlessly engaging and vivid. Myles also writes that “The casual destruction of childhood creativity in families […] and the casual and monstrous destruction of that deeper art in a child which is the self, […] pure originality, that’s the real subject here.” From mailing his soul to eating a loudly pessimistic piece of toast, Frank takes ownership of his life and creative spirit as and when he can. Conrad’s vision of youth and creativity lost and regained is darkly charming, rewarding, enduring, their style endlessly fun.