David Berman reinvents the overlooked and seemingly ordinary details of everyday life--from the suitcase of a departing girlfriend to a baseboard electrical outlet. However, despite his musical genius, Berman considers himself first and foremost a poet, as he should. I read that he lived in Washington DC for a time, in those lost years, and I wondered if I happened to pass him, unknowingly, when I was off on some stupid excursion, one of my heroes, a stranger in the street, that I didn't recognize him because I never would have thought to be looking for him. and now "Range Life" by Pavement is Playing, so fans of good indie rock like good books too, I'm not the only one, you mean people actually read books! But “jive” is a thoroughly modern term that by the time he’s set us up, we’re completely stricken by, only to ultimately be placed in the shoes of the guest who yawns and studies a glass.

Robert Bingham, founder and then-editor of the New York literary magazine Open City had already published a few of Berman's poems. Hopeful and nostalgic; recognizable and surprising (and surprising in its recognition), this book is an important puzzle piece in the body of work that is David Bermans life, but also stands on its own. While such poems can seem as performance-oriented as a Spalding Gray monologue, Berman anticipates the criticism in ""Cassette County"" which ends with the compound koan ""anti-showmanship, anti-showmanship, anti-showmanship. In his review for Spin, Joshua Clover praised the book, writing, "his instrument is his own; very few of the poems fail to find a finger of mystery, a ring of familiarity. i love david berman’s songwriting, but he’s able to link disparate images more effectively with an instrumental backing.in times of crisis i carry around books of poetry the way that some people carry around religious texts, reading and re-reading familiar poems like prayers. In the ideal world, or the world as written by a first-time novelist romanticizing their coming-of-age as if it meant anything to anyone other than them, I would have bought this at 16 and at 21 bought James Tate because of the blurb from him on the back, then cried at 29 when Tate passed. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement and Your California Privacy Rights.

with eyes trained on beauty and transcendence," producing "a lush and poignant portrait of "the view from falling behind.David Kirby of The New York Times likened the "whimsy" of Actual Air to the works of poets Mark Halliday and Campbell McGrath, but felt "In their poems, though, whimsy always leads to serious ideas and emotions that don't consistently materialize here.