After several years of illness, in 2011 Dean Young underwent a heart transplant, shortly after the publication of his fourteenth book. In Shock by Shock, his first collection of new poems since then, Young moves into an invigorating poetic territory, deftly folding the joy of renewed life into his signature mixture of surrealism, humor, blunt insight, and fast-cut imagery. NPR said it well when they observed that Pulitzer finalist Young sees “even in the smallest things the heights of what we can be.”
ISBN: 9781556595271
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 9781556594311
Format: Hardcover
Reviews
“The language, the invention, the imagination, and the sheer fun of his poems are astounding.” —Charles Simic
“Dean Young’s poems are as entertaining as a three-ring circus and as imaginative as a canvas by Hieronymus Bosch. He is one of the most inventive and satisfying poets writing today.” —American Academy of Arts and Letters
“Dean Young challenges the reader to hang on as he jigs from one poetic style to another and sets a wondrous course across a Duchampian landscape.” —Chicago Tribune
“Surrealism seldom seems as much like real life as in Young’s hilarious and cautionary poems.” —Booklist
“Young has mastered his own style and way of thinking in poems. Only a rare poet can make his readers simultaneously cry and laugh this way.” —Publishers Weekly
“Dean Young is a high-energy poet… His vigorous, vibrant, fast-paced poems make startling connections.” —Judges’ citation, Griffin Poetry Prize shortlist
“In Young’s work, the big essential questions—mortality, identity, the meaning of life—aren’t simply food for thought; they’re grounds for entertainment.” —Sunday Star