The Deathbed Playboy

By Philip Dacey

Book Overview

Once described by Dave Smith as "a one-man symphony," Dacey here ranges widely in tones, strategies, and forms, a diversity appropriate for one who characteristically mediates on American identity. In these poems, Dacey winds together many strands--our national pop culture, the vagaries of human discourse, death, and sexuality--and frames them in a narrative as comic as it is plangent.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0910055475
• ISBN13: 9780910055475
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Eastern Washington University Press
• Length: 88 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

I highly reccommend The Deathbed Playboy.

The Deathbed Playboy is a wonderful read. Dacey's tonal range is wide. The poems are smart, tender, and often funny. Smart, but not pedantic. Tender, but not gooey and manipulative. Funny, but not frivolous. The title poem, "The Deathbed Playboy," is a stunner. The tension between the humor and grief is palpable, and the funny and frantic reflections of the speaker are heartbreaking. So many contemporary books of poetry sound like they were all ghost-written by one glib Writing Workshop star. Dacey has a distinctive voice. It's generous, sly, comic and wonderfully accessible. This one goes on my gift-giving list