
The End of Being Known
A Memoir
Michael Klein(Author)
University of Wisconsin Press
Published on 31. October 2009
Book
Paperback/Softback
152 pages
978-0-299-18874-0 (ISBN)
Description
Written in poet Michael Klein's uniquely passionate, unapologetic but humble voice, ""The End of Being Known"" explores the lines that define, yet also blur, the boundaries of sex, friendship, and compatibility. This collection of autobiographical essays probes the manifestations of sexual desire in its mystical variety: experiencing incest, falling in love, being a twin, and inhabiting the world of anonymous sex - in practice, and, in an essay about the Body Electric movement, as something recuperative and renewing. Each essay unfurls in a hybrid of poetry, narrative, and fragmentary literary devices. Here is an uncompromising gaze upon the quandaries of those whose sexual, emotional, and relational worlds collide, yielding no answer to the riddle of desire, yet finding meaning by piecing together personal examples of universal themes such as learning, through trial and error, about love and life.
Reviews / Votes
Klein's prose style, like his poetry, is dreamy, allusive, repetitive in that way that admirers term 'hypnotic.' - Publishers Weekly ""Klein is a superb craftsman with a poet's gift for winging in and out of his own life, picking out the bright detail. He often uses rich language to describe the mysteries behind everyday life - accomplishing all this without ever coming across as the pompous center of his own universe."" - Harold Eugene Baldwin, Frontiers ""Like an insurance policy written for himself, Klein's work boldly denies pre-existing literary conditions."" - Jim Gladstone, Lambda Book Report ""Klein's thoughtful writing reflects ongoing ruminations, so thought-provokingly personal yet universal that readers may pause occasionally to really absorb them."" - BooklistMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Wisconsin
United States
Dimensions
Height: 210 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 12 mm
Weight
333 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-299-18874-0 (9780299188740)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Michael Klein is an award-winning poet and author. His poetry collections 1990 and Poets for Life are winners of the Lambda Literary Book Award. He lives in New York City and teaches memoir writing in the summer program at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.