{"product_id":"suboptimal-avery-arbegast-9798233689604","title":"SubOptimal","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis book is not interested in saving you.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt moves through fear, control, pleasure, and erosion with the understanding that none of them resolve into clarity. What it records instead are moments of contact: the body reacting before thought, the mind inventorying its limits, the quiet competence required to continue without believing it will lead anywhere better. These poems do not explain life. They observe it deteriorating, adjusting, and persisting anyway.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe work is structured, but not comforting. Fear is treated as intelligence rather than weakness. Pleasure appears briefly, without promise. Control is temporary, often illusory. Endings arrive without ceremony and do not redeem what came before them. The language is restrained, deliberate, and unsparing, drawing more from philosophical and classical traditions than from modern confessional poetry.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a book for readers who do not want reassurance, metaphors for healing, or lessons disguised as art. It does not offer hope as a conclusion or despair as spectacle. It assumes you are capable of looking directly at mortality, attrition, and the ordinary violence of time without being managed through them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNothing here will improve you.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eNothing here is meant to.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Avery Arbegast\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798233689604\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Avery Arbegast\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/21\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 238\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.62lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.54d","brand":"Avery Arbegast","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":48154334724351,"sku":"9798233689604","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_d8834a2f-7d8a-45da-85fe-713411975c41.jpg?v=1770789463","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/suboptimal-avery-arbegast-9798233689604","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}