The Book of Frank

By CAConrad Description Reviews Frank grew crows for handsit was a difficult childhood Praised by poet Anne Waldman as a “voyeuresque surreal portrait,” The Book of Frank is also, in the words of poet-critic Alan Gilbert, a “candid portrayal of human cruelty and its resultant fantasies of escape.” This is an expanded edition of CAConrad’s The Book of Frank, featuring additional “Frank” poems and an afterword by Eileen Myles. Conrad’s approach is a welcome change from high-minded poetry that steadfastly ignores the body in all its dumb, limiting materiality. Rimbaud declared that “I is another”; Conrad’s work shows us that the body itself is the first source of alienation and estrangement from the self, and is thus the true subject of poetry. Only by engaging this body, by forcing ourselves to travel through the shames and humiliations of its portals, can we achieve transport.Christopher Schmidt, Bookforum      At once charming and frightening, The Book of Frank will certain