On Coventry
Published on 19. October 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
200 pages
978-1-941861-09-7 (ISBN)
Description
On Coventry traces the very real phenomenon of generational decline by mapping the economic corrosion of Cleveland, Ohio, upon the semi-charmed story of Eliot Hopkins who, on the tragic side of twenty-two, finds himself thoroughly disappointed with life when the foggy hue of a girl in a knee-length pea coat, its collar turned up against the swell of her ale-brown hair, appears before him.
The story follows the ill-fated love between Eliot Hopkins and Alice Browne through the seemingly enchanted relationship of his now deceased mother and disabled father, and further back to the charmed life of his great-grandparents--immigrants who escaped Austria-Hungary at the outset of the First World War to find one another in a Minnesota mining camp before moving to Northeast Ohio. Schultz renders a discerning narrative of serendipitous relationships, cruel misfortune, and the entropy of American dreams. One that is a testament to the enduring optimism of every Clevelander who believes in tomorrow, next year, eventually, somewhen.
More details
Language
English
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Dimensions
Height: 203 mm
Width: 127 mm
Thickness: 11 mm
Weight
221 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-941861-09-7 (9781941861097)
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
Person
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Praise for the Author
"In this intriguing collection, we see how the use of a restrictive poetic form can reveal new and surprising insights from pre-existing works. Using repetition and masterful rearrangement, Schultz reinvigorates the familiar and transforms lines from an array of popular Irish poets. The resulting poems subvert our expectations and celebrate creativity through experimentation. This captivating collection rewards the reader with its inventiveness and demands to be revisited often, for as in his poem "Paradelle for Eamon Grennan", Schultz succeeds in reminding us that 'looking at it matters'."
- Michelle Granville, mixed-media artist
IG: @Beleafmoon
In Matt Schultz's handling, the parodic, hucksterish form of the paradelle assumes a new formal and emotional camouflage. In bringing together Irish poets living and lost, Schultz compels their lines into unexpected geometries. He achieves strange and compelling resonances within each poem; he match-makes offbeat, often poignant relationships among the poets. From rough days to rough fields, from Fergus to Sweeney to Ballycastle ballerinas, these poems offer a tilted literary history in which the comforts of familiar lines are taken away by richly alien collisions.
- Mary O'Donoghue, author of Among These Winters