The Americans

By David Roderick

Book Overview

David Roderick's second book, The Americans, pledges its allegiance to dirt. And to laptops. And to swimming pools, the Kennedys, a flower in a lapel, plastic stars hanging from the ceiling of a child's room, churning locusts, a jar of blood, a gleam of sun on the wing of a plane. His poems swarm with life. They also ask an unanswerable question: What does it mean to be an American? Restless against the borders we build--between countries, between each other--Roderick roams from place to place in order to dig into the messy, political, idealistic and ultimately inexplicable idea of American-ness. His rangy, inquisitive lyrics stitch together a patchwork flag, which he stakes alongside all the noise of our construction, our obsessive building and making, while he imagines the fate of a nation built on desire.
Winner of the 2014 Julie Suk Award for the best poetry book published by an independent press.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0822963124
• ISBN13: 9780822963127
• Release Date: August 2014
• Publisher: University of Pittsburgh Press
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.9" x 8.1"