Eunoia
The Upgraded Edition
Published on 3. November 2005
Book
Paperback/Softback
120 pages
978-1-55245-225-7 (ISBN)
Description
The word ?eunoia,' which literally means ?beautiful thinking,' is the shortest word in English that contains all five vowels. Directly inspired by the Oulipo (l'Ouvroir de Litterature Potentielle), a French writers' group interested in experimenting with different forms of literary constraint, Eunoia is a five-chapter book in which each chapter is a univocal lipogram ? the first chapter has A as its only vowel, the second chapter E, etc. Each vowel takes on a distinct personality: the I is egotistical and romantic, the O jocular and obscene, the E elegiac and epic (including a retelling of the Iliad!).
Stunning in its implications and masterful in its execution, Eunoia has developed a cult following, garnering extensive praise and winning the Griffin Poetry Prize. The original edition was never released in the U.S., but it has already been a bestseller in Canada and the U.K. (published by Canongate Books), where it was listed as one of the Times' top ten books of 2008.
This edition features several new but related poems by Christian Boek and an expanded afterword.
Stunning in its implications and masterful in its execution, Eunoia has developed a cult following, garnering extensive praise and winning the Griffin Poetry Prize. The original edition was never released in the U.S., but it has already been a bestseller in Canada and the U.K. (published by Canongate Books), where it was listed as one of the Times' top ten books of 2008.
This edition features several new but related poems by Christian Boek and an expanded afterword.
Reviews / Votes
'Eunoia is a novel that will drive everybody sane.' - Samuel Delany, author of The Einstein Intersection'A marvellous, musical texture of rhymes and echoes.' - Harry Mathews, author of The New Tourism and My Life in the CIA
'An exemplary monument for 21st century poetry.' - Charles Bernstein, author of Attack of the Difficult Poems and Girly Man
'Boek's dazzling word games are the literary sensation of the year.' - The Times
'A resounding success ... brilliant.' - The Guardian
'Brilliant ... beautiful and strange.' - Today Programme, BBC Radio 4
'Impressive.' - Sunday Telegraph
'No mere Christmas stocking filler for Countdown fans. Rather, it's an ingenious little novel ... playful and irreverent ... charming.' - Metro 'Eunoia is a novel that will drive everybody sane.' ? Samuel Delany, author of The Einstein Intersection
'A marvellous, musical texture of rhymes and echoes.' ? Harry Mathews, author of The New Tourism and My Life in the CIA
'An exemplary monument for 21st century poetry.' ? Charles Bernstein, author of Attack of the Difficult Poems and Girly Man
'Boek's dazzling word games are the literary sensation of the year.' ? The Times
'A resounding success ... brilliant.' ? The Guardian
'Brilliant ... beautiful and strange.' ? Today Programme, BBC Radio 4
'Impressive.' ? Sunday Telegraph
'No mere Christmas stocking filler for Countdown fans. Rather, it's an ingenious little novel ... playful and irreverent ... charming.' ? Metro
More details
Edition
Second Edition, The Upgraded Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Toronto
Canada
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Dimensions
Height: 206 mm
Width: 128 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
176 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-55245-225-7 (9781552452257)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
10/2005
1st Edition
Coach House Books
€37.19
Available for download
Person
Christian Boek is the author of Crystallography (Coach House Press, 1994), a 'pataphysical encyclopedia nominated for the Gerald Lampert Award for Best Poetic Debut, and 'Pataphysics: The Poetics of an Imaginary Science (Northwestern University Press, 2001). His book Eunoia won the 2002 Griffin Poetry Prize and is the best-selling Canadian poetry book of all time. Boek has created artificial languages for Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict and Peter Benchley's Amazon. His conceptual artwork has appeared at the Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York City as part of the exhibit Poetry Plastique. He currently teaches at the University of Calgary.