{"product_id":"the-house-of-blue-light-david-kirby-9780807126172","title":"The House of Blue Light","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe House of Blue Light\u003c\/i\u003e is the second collection of autobiographical \"memory poems\" by Catholic-school-boy-gone-bad-turned-poet-made-good David Kirby, a stand-up comic of verse if ever there was one: \"in Stardust Memories . . . these wise space aliens who visit Earth . . . tell  Woody Allen] that if he really wants to serve humanity, \/ he should tell funnier jokes--wait, that's my duty, \/ I think, that's my public duty  Because sooner or later, \/ we all turn upside down.\" \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWearing both heart and wit on his sleeve, Kirby confides in longish narrative poems events he actually or vicariously experienced--as a child, a teen, a young man, and now--as well as some future scenes he imagines. Literary theorists Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes; Little Richard and Muhammad Ali; Herman Melville, James Dickey, and Henry James; friends, family, personal heroes, and acquaintances, including the Ah Oui Girl of Paris and Tige Watley's Whoah of Baton Rouge, are all equally alive in Kirby's poems. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAs Walt Whitman did, Kirby offers a first-person speaker as a proxy for everyone else (\"Who, including ourselves, \/ knows what we know and when we know it?\"), achieving a unity and accessible authenticity rare in poetry. A fun house, \"a mishmash for sure,\" \u003ci\u003eThe House of Blue Light\u003c\/i\u003e is a delightfully entertaining, irreverent, erudite collection of commentary piling upon commentary that brings us \"that one element so largely absent \/ from our quotidian existence, i.e., surprise.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e David Kirby\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0807126179\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780807126172\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e LSU Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/01\/2000\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 88\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.01h x 6.02w x 0.28d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/01\/2000 pg. 214\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/30\/2000 pg. 72\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e 11\/12\/2000 pg. 26\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/15\/2001 pg. 1349\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/01\/2000 pg. 58","brand":"David Kirby","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43926289842431,"sku":"9780807126172","price":16.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/products\/img_bf589e4d-7ef9-4b10-8689-d45aa597278d.jpg?v=1681082246","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-house-of-blue-light-david-kirby-9780807126172","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}