The Lichtenberg Figures

In the 1998 Hal Hartley movie Henry Fool a perverted garbageman writes a poem that becomes the "best selling poem of all time," eventually earning him the Nobel Prize. Ben Lerner is not a garbageman, but he holds a degree in Political Theory from Brown University, which is close enough to the script that he ought to be in line for recognition by the Swedish Academy. Lichtenberg is a sonnet sequence chloroformed by the lies and swindles of the English language circa 2004. I adore this book. I adorate it. Check out some of its lines: What am I the antecedent of? When I shave I feel like a Russian. When I drink I'm the last Jew in Kansas. I sit in my hammock and whittle my rebus. I feel disease spread through me like a theaory. I take a sip from Death's black daiquiri. ... O slender spadix projecting from a narrow spathe, you are thinner than spaghetti but not as thin as vermicelli. You are the first and last indigenous Nintendo.

While Lerner's work has much in common with L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E writing--an interest in the materiality of language, in postmodern theory, in visual art, and so on--it also has the discursive precision of a more traditional poet--Auden, for example. The Lichtenberg Figures is one of those rare books in which beautiful and playful linguistic surfaces coexist with moments of sincerity.

This book signals that Copper Canyon has turned an important corner. Formerly more concerned with publishing established poets than with discovering new ones, Copper Canyon has now produced the most impressive debut collection I've read in twenty years.

Most first books of poetry are collections of imitations of other books of poetry. This book is original, powerful, and perfectly realized.

Ben Lerner has written a book both timely and timeless: it's political and yet deeply versed in various literary traditions. It's beautiful, but mean. Mean, but hopeful. Loving, but stern. This is a major work.