Pure Poetry: A Novel - Tapa blanda

Lynne Sharon Schwartz author of "Leaving Brooklyn" Binnie Kirshenbaum has a wonderful gift for turning cliches inside out and making conventional wisdom run for cover. How nice, for instance, to have a swaggering, foul mouthed, wacky, predatory female poet as heroine for a change! But beneath "Pure Poetry's" outrageous humor and assaults on political correctness runs a current of intractable pain, gallantly faced. This fiercely clever writer is a true anarchic spirit. Maureen Howard author of "A Lover's Almanac" Binnie Kirshenbaum has created a memorable heroine, witty and too wise for her own good. An original and striking performance: Kirshenbaum writes boldly and honestly about sex, race, class, and a woman's lonely pursuit of a place to call home. Line by beautifully written line, this novel is funny, but in the end, the journey to self-discovery is deeply moving. Sara Lewis author of "Heart Conditions" Binnie Kirshenbaum is one of a few true originals in American fiction. This book will take your breath away. On the one hand, "Pure Poetry" is a funny, heartbreaking, can't put-it-down page-turner that you'll want to devour in one greedy gulp. On the other hand, you'll want to slowly savor its many layers of meaning, subtle insights, and deep observations. Like your best friends, its main character, Lila Moscowitz, i's a unique, flawed, and complicated character you'll love forever. Read this book, and you'll thank your lucky stars that you have both Lila and Binnie in your life. Laurie Stone, author of "Laughing in the Dark and Close to the Bone;" long time critic for "The Village Voice" Pure Poetry is a joke of a title, for Binnie Kirshenbaum's funny, sad novel is delightfully ragged and raw and piercingly aware of ambivalence that can't be resolved. Lila escapes life as a suburban princess only to feel herself becoming an urban Camille. But there's too much Lenny Bruce in her for that. This book is a joyous, sexy anatomy of melancholy. Norman Mailer Not many young female novelists can deal with sex, the appetite for it, and the loss of such appetite with as much candor, lack of self-protection, and humor as Binnie Kirshenbaum. Nicholas Christopher author of "A Trip to the Stars""Pure Poetry" is a terrific novel, with a deliciously strong voice, finely wrought characters, and a sure narrative touch. Binnie Kirshenbaum has a musical ear and a wicked wit, and she employs them with wonderful modulation in creating a remarkable world all her own. A novelist with an enormous European following, with this book -- multifaceted and polished as a gem -- Ms. Kirshenbaum ought to find the corresponding audience in the U.S.A. that she so clearly deserves.

Meet Lila Moscowitz, a smart-mouthed, Jewish American beauty with a voracious appetite for sex, a remarkable talent for outrageous lies, and an unerring knack for screwing up her life. An accomplished poet, renowned for writing "smut and filth in "terza rima,"" she goes about her life in "Pure Poetry" with enough attitude and verve to win your heart forever. But since fleeing the all-consuming passion of her marriage to Max, the sexy German, she can no longer compose so much as a couplet; ghosts have taken over her Greenwich Village apartment, and the contrast between her feelings for her present lover and her former husband is breaking her heart. And neither her best friend, Carmen, nor her cross-dressing analyst, Leon, is able to soothe her angst over her impending thirty eighth birthday, an occasion fraught with a thirty-seven year tradition of emotional devastation. But time waits for no woman, and the dreaded birthday does bring insight: Love can be undone by the same desires that nurture it. Lila knows that she has got to take action, and in doing so she comes to realize some startling truths about herself, her capacity for love, and the nature of true freedom. Binnie Kirshenbaum's voice has been acclaimed by critics and readers alike. Already a bestselling author in Germany, Kirshenbaum demonstrates a brilliant maturity in "Pure Poetry." Not since Erica Jong's "Fear of Flying" has a novel so captured a woman's heart and desires. Readers will cheer "Pure Poetry" for its heady mix of humor and sadness, and for its slyly unsettling visions of modern life.