<p><strong>Reviews:</strong></p>
<p>“The liberty [Glancy] takes in form and content is ambitious, and it pays off.” —<strong><em>The Corresponder</em>, Minnesota State University</strong></p>
<p>“Island of the Innocent is a grand work of midrash on the Book of Job. Inclusive, maximal, multifaceted, this is an expansive poetics, along the lines of Whitman, Ginsberg, or Alice Notley.” —<strong>Dan Alter, <em>Heavy Feather Review</em></strong></p>
<p>"Glancy uses poetry and prose to filter the Book of Job through the stories of Native Americans and other marginalized groups."—<strong><em>The New York Times Book Review</em></strong></p>
<p>“A moving testament to the creative act of enduring, Glancy’s hybrid collection emphasizes the shadow speak of history, memory, and trauma as legacy.”—<strong><em>Foreword Reviews</em>, starred review</strong></p>
<p><strong>Praise:</strong></p>
<p>“The Book of Job, too often flattened into simplistic soundbites, demands extended dialogic engagement. Diane Glancy’s exquisite ‘consideration’ does this and more, teasing new relevance, new stories, and new questions out of the text. Refracted through Indian history and the words Glancy finds for Job’s neglected companion—words so carefully weighed some need to be newly invented – her book of Job proves a hacienda of solace of a more complex kind. Every classic text should be so fortunate.”—<strong>MARK LARRIMORE, author of <em>The Book of Job: A Biography</em></strong></p>
<p>“Glancy picks up Job’s poetry as found speech and finds it gives voice to the suffering of Native Americans who know what it feels like to have everything taken by a whirlwind and wonder what sort of God is behind it. This strange, marvelous book is like a flare sent across history from ancient Uz, illuminating what has long been enshadowed, including corners of our own souls. Unforgettable.”—<strong>JAMES K.A. SMITH, author of <em>On the Road with Saint Augustine</em></strong></p>
<p>“Christianity and the Native American are rarely found harmoniously in the same sentence, let alone the same poem. Yet Diane Glancy’s sensibility . . . makes her sui generis, allowing her to explore and write around these two subjects until they sing. With the poems and hybrid essays in Island of the Innocent, she’s once again drawn the reader into her unusual mind. What bounty to have Glancy’s great art erupt once more. —<strong>SPENCER REECE, author of <em>The Clerk’s Tale</em> and <em>The Road to Emmaus</em></strong></p>
<p>"Strange and sublime. In these lines, a magic both biblical and quotidian unfurls."—<strong>DIANE SEUSS, author of <em>Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl</em></strong></p>

A New York Times Book Review New & Noteworthy Selection.

“A moving testament to the creative act of enduring."—Foreword Reviews, starred review

"What bounty to have Glancy's great art erupt once more." —Spencer Reece, author of The Clerk’s Tale and The Road to Emmaus

"Every classic text should be so fortunate." —Mark Larrimore, author of The Book of Job: A Biography

There is much mystery surrounding the Book of Job. Who was he? Where was he? What prompts Job's "comforters" to accuse him of wrong-doing as the cause of his suffering? When were Job's words written? How did Job's wife endure her husband's ordeals? And who is innocent among us?

Island of the Innocent's narrative dramatizes how the way one looks at something shapes and changes what is seen. Voices of the trials of the Native American interject themselves into the text. There is Custer riding toward the Little Bighorn. There is a Native American doll in a museum, taken from a battlefield in western Nebraska after the massacre of Ash Hollow. There is Job, sitting in his yard chair in discomfort, among the falling leaves and his three friends.

And finally, Jehorah. Only Diane Glancy could create the missing story of Job's wife, unsilencing this biblical character and endowing her suffering with meaning. Here is Jehorah in "Job's Wife":

 

What next? What next?—I wrote
in my book of sorrows. I keep a journal asking
God what he is doing. Once I start it's hard to stop.
I was expecting more boils on Job. More death—
more ever-ready friendly visits. But after them—
who was left?— I ask you. where is my broom?
My head? My battle-ax?

Les mer

Award-winning poet Diane Glancy’s radical approach to the perennial mystery of suffering takes the trials of Job—the just man unjustly punished—into the New World.

Dormer

I don’t care about trouble.
I care about trouble more than anything.
The boy hits a ball with a bat.
Despite all evidence to the contrary
suffering is true.
It is wise.
It opens a house you never knew was there.
Or a part of the house you never knew was there.
Though you always dreamed there was another story to the house.
One above the second floor.
It was there when you slept.
The boy in the yard with his bat.
At night a universe full of white balls.

Job’s Wife

The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before—
Job 42:10—

1000 yoke of oxen, 6000 camels, 14,000 sheep, 1000 asses
crowded in the fields and pastures.
What will Job do with all those animals?—
Who knew a blessing could be a burden?—
How will he feed double of all he had?
I was asleep when the whirlwind sucked our children up—
seven sons, three daughters. Lost. Lost and lost.
The son’s house and household goods scattered across
the hacienda. What next? What next?— I wrote
in my book of sorrows. I keep a journal asking
God what he is doing. Once I start it’s hard to stop.
I was expecting more boils on Job. More death—
more ever-ready friendly visits. But after them—
who was left?— I ask you. Where is my broom?
My head? My battle-ax? My buzz saw and hammer?
At least the Chaldeans and Sabeans stole the herds
of camels, ox and asses— and left no messes.
Unlike the fire that burned up 7000 sheep—
leaving bits of bone and tooth— clumps of charred wool.
The families of the dead field servants bereft.
The fire and the Chaldeans and Sabeans killed them too.
The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had—
except the sons and daughters were not doubled.
The field servants would have to be replaced— somehow—
I write to God. There is no end of mourning.
The cost of loss in Job’s day book. His ledger.
He keeps numbers. I keep words.
I cannot hold them back like Job’s friends spilling
at the mouth— a thousand yoke of thoughts.
Les mer

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781885983800
Publisert
2020-07-02
Utgiver
Turtle Point Press; Turtle Point Press
Høyde
228 mm
Bredde
152 mm
Aldersnivå
G, 01
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Heftet
Antall sider
224

Forfatter

Om bidragsyterne

Diane Glancy is a poet, novelist, essayist, playwright, and professor emeritus at Macalester College. Her works have won the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, the 2016 Arrell Gibson Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oklahoma Center for the Book, the 2014 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Native Writers' Circle of the Americas, the 2003 Juniper Prize for Poetry for The Primer of the Obsolete, and the 1993 American Book Award for Claiming Breath.

In 2018, Publishers Weekly named her book Pushing the Bear: A Novel of the Trail of Tears one of the ten essential Native American novels. Glancy's work reflects her European and Native-American descent, and frequently depicts both Native American and non-Native characters.

Her latest work, Island of the Innocent: A Consideration of the Book of Job, continues and deepens her lifelong exploration of the religious and cultural dimensions of identity, both personal and collective. Her most recent books are It Was Over There by That Place (The Atlas Review Chapbook Series) and The Book of Bearings (Wipf and Stock).

Glancy divides her time between Kansas and Texas.