The Front Matter, Dead Souls

This extraordinary new book is essay-fiction-poetry, an experiment in form, "a serial novel for publication in the newspaper" that collapses the distinction between documentary and fiction. Leslie Scalapino is widely regarded as one of the best avant-garde writers in America today. This extraordinary new book is essay-fiction-poetry, an experiment in form, "a serial novel for publication in the newspaper" that collapses the distinction between documentary and fiction. Loosely set in Los Angeles, the book scrutinizes our image-making, producing extreme and vivid images-hyena, Muscle Beach in Venice, the Supreme Court, subway rides-in order for them to be real. Countering contemporary trends toward interiority, Scalapino's work constitutes a unique effort to "be" objectively in the world. The writing is an action, a dynamic push to make intimacy in the public realm. She does not distinguish between poetry and "real events": her writing is analogous to Buddhist notions of dreaming one is a butterfly, and becoming aware that actually being the butterfly is as real as dreaming it. LESLIE SCALAPINO is the author of numerous books of poetry, essays, and plays, as well as the novel Dafoe (Sun and Moon,1994). Among her books of poetry are way (1988), that they were at the beach- aeolotropic series (1985), and Considering how exaggerated music is (1982), all published by North Point Press. She has taught most recently at Bard College and the Naropa Institute. "Challenging, bizarre, and, surprisingly, engaging language-, image-, and action-play. Scalapino caputures the flux and motion that is late-twentieth-century living, and she does so with freshness, daring, and subtle skillfulness."-- Booklist