Come! Come! Where? Where? - by James Seay (Paperback)

About the Book

"In his first collection of essays, beloved poet James Seay explores myriad universal themes including mental illness, what it means to be a parent and to lose a child, and the complexities of when different cultures collide, all told through his experience as a writer and a lifelong Southerner. We share moments with Seay that stay with us, dipping in and out of his life and our own collective experiences: his grandmother wringing chicken necks for Sunday dinner, Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha, 9/11, TV's The Sopranos, and the American obsession with guns. In each essay, he connects these disparate topics to the South, whether his home state or his years of teaching in Virginia and North Carolina, and he transports readers to these locales, often using Southern literature as a means of understanding culture and place. Using his poet's eye for detail, Seay offers few easy answers for the big questions he explores in this book. But walking with him on his journeys will open eyes to the possibilities, tenderness, and mysteries that surround us, hidden among everyday things"--

Book Synopsis

James Seay's essays reflect a poet's eye for detail and a seeker's wrestling with life's big questions and experiences: what it means to be a parent, losing a child, confronting mental illness, observing and living through the collision of cultures, finding the universal in the particularity of every day. We share moments with Seay that stay with us, dipping in and out of his life and our own collective experience, as he reflects on childhood memories of his grandmother wringing chicken necks for Sunday dinner, reads his way through Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha, processes 9/11, watches The Sopranos, and ponders the American obsession with guns. These essays transport readers--from the South to the Southwest, from the former Soviet Union to France, and beyond--while exploring disparate topics, often using literature as a means of understanding culture and place.

Seay offers few easy answers for the big questions he explores. But walking with him on his journeys will open eyes to the possibilities, tenderness, and mysteries that surround us, hidden among everyday things.

Review Quotes

"A reflective and tender essay collection . . . . the kind of book that, by its end, reminds us of our world and our place in it. Even when it focuses on death, it is still buzzing with life."--Chapter 16, Humanities Tennessee

"Crisp and entertaining. . . . Come! Come! Where? Where? isn't a sad book, even when it does deal with sadness; it's genuinely as life-affirming as the sparrow song translated by its title."--North Carolina Literary Review

About the Author

James Seay's work has appeared in Esquire, Harper's, the New Yorker, and Oxford American, among others. He has received an Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.