Nin Andrews, a regular contributor to this blog, whose poems have appeared in four editions of The Best American Poetry, has brilliantly extended the conceit she introduced in her Book of Orgasms, first published in 1994, reprinted since then, and characterized often as an international cult classic. In the new book there are poems that reflects Andrews’s passionate engagement with the work of such poets as Walt Whitman, Henri Michaux, Robert Hass, Lydia Davis, Denise Duhamel, Frank O’Hara, Amy Gerstler, James Tate, Mark Strand, Robert Bly, Rilke, Vallejo, and the sculptor Bernini (“Ecstasy of Saint Teresa”). There is also a splendid reflection on John Ashbery’s “Instruction Manual.” Andrews dares to ask questions, such as “What is the postmodernist orgasm?” Interviewing many in her indefatigable quest to resolve the issue, Andrews gives us the standard Wikipedia definition (“An orgasm of questionable identity or origin”) as well as the far more convincing definition provided by the new American feminist, Anne-Marie Slaughter, who says it is “a part of the all that women can’t have.”
The press release from Etruscan Press in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., begins with these paragraphs:
The Last Orgasm, a collection of wry and fantastical, spiritual, feminist meditations on sexuality, love, desire, and the end of desire, was released by Etruscan Press today.
The Last Orgasm continues the journey of Nin Andrew’s first collection, The Book of Orgasms, which became a cult classic that has been translated into Turkish, performed in Prague and has readers around the globe. In both books the orgasm is an ethereal presence, puzzled by humanity in general and the author in particular.
Jan Beatty, (Jackknife: New and Selected Poems, University of Pittsburgh Press, 2017) says, “Of course, I would praise The Last Orgasm. And the first, second, middle, next, next to last. For the sake of everything true and holy (although Andrews would say there is nothing holy) please read this outrageous book! In these smart, raucous poems of one orgasm after another, Andrews climaxes at the pinnacle of social commentary—the G-spot of social change: the change being, give us more orgasms/the orgasm is dead. Indicting the writer, the book, the poetry mafia, and, of course, the orgasm, Andrews writes: ‘When I was sixteen, I woke one night and saw Our Lady of the Orgasm singing.’ Read this book if you want to sing again.”
>>>
Go to Source
Author: The Best American Poetry
