United States, German, Love Poems, Nature, Women Authors 

Award-winning, Paris-based poet Alice Notley’s adventurous new book is inspired by the life of Marie, a woman who resided in the dump outside Notley’s hometown in the Southwestern desert of America. In this poetical fantasy, Marie becomes the ultimate artist/poet, composing a codex-calligraphy, writings, paintings, collage-from materials left at the dump. She is a “culture of one.” The story is told in long-lined, clear-edged poems deliberately "stacked" so the reader can keep plunging headlong into the key events of the book, which include how Marie's friend, the pathological liar Leroy, ceases to lie after being bitten by a rattlesnake; the burning down of Marie's shack by the town's mean girls, who also kill her beloved half-coyote dog; a terrifying concert by a tormented rock star; and the metamorphosis of the goddess Mercy, also a character in the book, from a statue-like being into a vast presence. -- from back cover.