Pigeon - by Karen Solie (Paperback)

About the Book

Launched to prominence with her first collection of poems, Karen Solie continued her upward trajectory with "Modern and Normal." Now, with "Pigeon, " this singer of existential bewilderment takes another step forward. She finds an analog for the divine in a massive, new model tractor and an analogue for the malign in the face of the New York Yankees' Alex Rodriguez. Her poems are X-rays of delusions and mistaken perceptions, intellectual explorations of bad luck, creeping catastrophe, and the eros of danger come dressed to kill. Her ear is impeccable and her syntax the key to a rare, razor-sharp poetic intelligence. "Pigeon" expands Solie's growing readership, making clear to anyone who encounters her that there is still fresh, unmapped territory in the world of poetry. As poet Michael Hofmann said, "Solie's work should be read wherever English is read."

Book Synopsis

Karen Solie launched to prominence with her first collection of poems, Short Haul Engine (2001), finalist for the Griffin Poetry Prize and winner of many other awards and citations. She continued her upward trajectory with Modern and Normal (2005), and is now considered one of Canada's best poets.

Pigeon is yet another leap forward for this singer of existential bewilderment. These poems are X-rays of our delusions and mistaken perceptions, explorations of violence, bad luck, fate, creeping catastrophe, love, and the eros of danger. Once again, Solie shows that her ear is impeccable, her poetic intelligence rare and razor-sharp.

Review Quotes

"Pigeon ... shows why [Solie] has become one of the most admired Canadian poets of her generation." - Paul Vermeersch, Globe and Mail

"As much as Pigeon sings with metaphor and language-love, it is also infused with a subtle formality that feels like listening to the echoing footsteps of someone walking by deep in thought ... In wilderness, perhaps self-discovery, but also distance and solitude exist. Solie provides all three." - Globe and Mail

"Karen Solie has established herself as one of Canada's best lyric poets ... Pigeon deals out fearlessness, humour, and raw experience, one killing line after another ... Among the arts, poetry has the most human of values, and among poets, few are as deeply human as Solie. Her poems respond to the many ways a day can come to us, while seeming to discover and name new constants of the heart." - NUVO

"Karen Solie looks at the most mundane details of the commercialized landscape and, with a few twists, turns them to gold." - Literary Hub

"Lyrical but gritty, intellectual but tough-talking, colloquial yet elegant ... As she delves deeper into the social and geological bedrock of our civilization. This is [Solie's] strongest book yet." - Quill & Quire

"Solie has found a technique that others could only envy." - National Post