Dead Uncles - by Ben Kline (Paperback)

About the Book

Equal parts humorous and devastating, Ben Kline's Dead Uncles investigates the lingering impacts that formative family experiences can have years later.

Book Synopsis

Equal parts humorous and devastating, Ben Kline's Dead Uncles investigates the lingering impacts that formative family experiences can have years later.

In this stunning collection, Kline presents the funny and the painful side by side to reveal a fully realized family tree.

Through humor and candor, Dead Uncles reveals the glee, challenge, struggle, and joys of an extended family. Simultaneously, Kline writes with subtle perception about the letdowns and shortcomings of family members.

These poems investigate identity, self, and how difficult it can be to extract those from your own geology. What does it mean to change beyond what your family thinks of you? What are the anxieties inherent in showing your family something they might not understand or accept? These are the questions answered in Dead Uncles.

Readers looking for poetry that is as funny as it is devastating will find a new favorite in Ben Kline's astounding collection.

This collection also features a bespoke interview with the writer at then end of the book, delving deeper into the craft, influences, and life behind their work.

Review Quotes

"A great chapbook drills deep, yielding such vibrant detail that we cannot help but inhabit the world built before us. That's the case of the bracing, strangely beautiful Dead Uncles, which proposes a reality (and sur-reality) of a sprawling, intergenerational family whose bonds are inflected by sexual transgression. One dead uncle casts a spell for killing barn mice; another keeps his hold on local office thanks to votes tallied from the 'Cemetery Precinct.' Material that could seem grim in another poet's hands is set a-glimmer here by formal dexterity, bold humor, bright images, and musicality of phrasing."

- Sandra Beasley, author of Count the Waves

"In Dead Uncles, Ben Kline renders a portrait of a family that 'you must suspend all disbelief' to know: one intergenerational in the matter-of-fact inclusion of its ghosts whose stories are told as if they never ended-as if this book itself were the old recipe or the spell or the secret passed down to keep them alive."

- Clair Dunlap, editor of Vagabond City Lit