The Resurrection of the Body (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781597322386)

The Resurrection of the Body explores hunger both within and outside the male body in the American Midwest, tracing the journey of a male speaker suffering from anorexia as he comes of age, navigating the porous line between self-improvement and self-harm. The collection reveals a speaker whose lineage is fraught with disordered eating and the self-sacrifice demanded in Midwestern masculinity. Lyric-narrative poems show him sparring in parking lots to learn boyhood toughness, starving himself in summer, and reflecting on the similarities between his body and the deer he's hunted for years. Striking imagery and vivid imagination showcase the beauty evident even in a ruined landscape and unhealthy body. Drawing on allusions as diverse as Frankenstein's Monster, Jessica Simpson's portrayal of Daisy Duke, and the supermassive black hole at the Milky Way's core, this affecting debut delves into an under-reported and under-discussed disorder, asking how we can live with grace inside our most desperate struggles.