{"product_id":"the-two-yvonnes-jessica-greenbaum-9780691156637","title":"The Two Yvonnes","description":"\u003cp\u003eThis is the second collection from a Brooklyn poet whose work many readers will know from the \u003ci\u003eNew Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e. Jessica Greenbaum's narrative poems, in which objects and metaphor share highest honors, attempt revelation through close observation of the everyday. Written in \"plain American that cats and dogs can read,\" as Marianne Moore phrased it, these contemporary lyrics bring forward the challenges of Wislawa Szymborska, the reportage of Yehuda Amichai, and the formal forays of Marilyn Hacker. The book asks at heart: how does life present itself to us, and how do we create value from our delights and losses? Riding on Kenneth Koch's instruction to \"find one true feeling and hang on,\" \u003ci\u003eThe Two Yvonnes\u003c\/i\u003e overtakes the present with candor, meditation, and the classic aspiration to shape lyric into a lasting force. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMoving from 1960s Long Island, to 1980s Houston, to today's Brooklyn, the poems range in subject from the pages of the Talmud to a squirrel trapped in a kitchen. One tells the story of young lovers \"warmed by the rays \/ Their pelvic bones sent over the horizon of their belts,\" while another describes the Bronx Zoo in winter, where the giraffes pad about \"like nurses walking quietly \/ outside a sick room.\" Another poem defines the speaker via a \"packing slip\" of her parts--\"brown eyes, brown hair, from hirsute tribes in Poland and Russia.\" The title poem, in which the speaker and friends stumble through a series of flawed memories about each other, unearths the human vulnerabilities that shape so much of the collection. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom \u003ci\u003eThe Two Yvonnes\u003c\/i\u003e: \u003cbr\u003eWHEN MY DAUGHTER GOT SICK\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eHer cries impersonated all the world;\u003cbr\u003eThe fountain's bubbling speech was just a trick\u003cbr\u003eBut still I turned and looked, as she implored, \u003cbr\u003eOr leaned toward muffled noises through the bricks: \u003cbr\u003eJust radio, whose waves might be her wav-\u003cbr\u003eering, whose pitch might be her quavering, \u003cbr\u003eI turned toward, where, the sirens might be \"Save \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eMe,\" \"Help me,\" \"Mommy, Mommy\"--everything\u003cbr\u003eShe, too, had said, since sloughing off the world.\u003cbr\u003eShe took to bed, and now her voice stays fused\u003cbr\u003eTo air like outlines of a bygone girl;\u003cbr\u003eThe streets, the lake, the room--just places bruised\u003cbr\u003eWithout her form, the way your sheets still hold\u003cbr\u003eRough echoes of the risen sleeper, cold.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Jessica Greenbaum\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0691156638\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780691156637\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 09\/30\/2012\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 80\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.30lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 5.90w x 0.30d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/01\/2012 pg. 82","brand":"Jessica Greenbaum","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":46431311397119,"sku":"9780691156637","price":17.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_7341d970-a71b-411d-9215-4a1bbff3b324.jpg?v=1735140945","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/the-two-yvonnes-jessica-greenbaum-9780691156637","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}