Modern History Book

This intensely personal collection of symphonic prose poems uses politics, physics, popular culture, nostalgia, and off-the-wall humor to articulate and ignite metaphysical arguments. Christopher Buckley employs a sardonic wit and poignant lyricism to wheedle clarity out of chaos and coax wisdom out of absurdity. Just as he investigates and questions the vagaries of knowledge, so does he explore the prose poem, testing and probing its boundaries to see if it will accommodate his powerful insight and decidedly original outlook. His facility with scientific precepts is matched and cleverly juxtaposed with his penchant for wacky nostalgic detail; old movies, simonized Chryslers, and doo-wop music are the backdrop for a spirited glide through twenty years of this eminent poet's pursuit of the absolute.