Overview
David Berman's first (and only) book of poetry was and is a journey though shared and unreliable memory. At the time, Berman was called a modern-day Wallace Stevens and a next-wave John Ashberry, with his own logic, awareness of pop culture and sensitivity to the details of the post-postmodern world in his poems. Alongside his lyrics to a half-dozen infamous Silver Jews records, this book endeared Berman to lovers of poetry, prose, and music alike. This edition includes larger dimensions and enlarged typeface, a new dustjacket artwork variant, deluxe cloth boards, updated full-color endpapers, and a dust-jacket featuring a photo of the artist around the time of the original publication.Reviews
"These poems are beautiful, strange, intelligent, and funny . . . It's a book for everyone." —James Tate
"Actual Air is one of the funniest, smartest, and sweetest books of the year, a collection of snapshots colored ecstatically outside the lines. This is the absurd American sublime, poetry that raises the stakes on the everyday and bluffs the blunders." —GQ
"[His poems] are full of complex turns and tricks and conceptual hijinks, and yet there's this surface clarity. You're welcomed into the poem." —Billy Collins
"Some of his book is Ashbery-influenced, while some stanzas recall the Americana of Thomas Lux . . . leagues beyond Jewell's A Night Without Armor, announcing the discovery of great American poetic storytelling by a new generation." —Publisher's Weekly
"Sophisticated yet accessible" —New York TimesAuthor Biography
David Berman is a poet, singer-songwriter, and the former member of the indie-rock band, Silver Jews. He lives in Williamsburg, Virginia.