So Long

Levitt, Jen

ISBN 10: 1954245505 / ISBN 13: 9781954245501

Published by Four Way Books, 2023

May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G1954245505I4N00

Synopsis:

Anticipating and then grieving the death of her father, Jen Levitt's So Long fleshes out a full elegiac register, sitting with the mourning of farewell while holding onto gratitude, remembrance, and a permeating love. "Soon," she says, "we'll have to find another way to meet, as moonlight / makes the river glow." In the contrails of bittersweet loss, Levitt's speaker observes all that surrounds her, and the self, too, as a phenomenon in loneliness. In the suburbs, she notes high- school athletes circling "in their sweat-resistant fabrics," "so natural in their tank tops, those dutiful kids trying to beat time"; upstate, she finds herself in temple where Broadway music has replaced prayer and discovers "no promises, / but, like hearing a rustle in deep woods & turning to locate its source, the chance for something rare." It is this humanistic faith that inverts the title's idiomatic goodbye into a statement of permanence, the truth of our enduring, improbable lives: look at this, she seems to command herself, "& look at how lucky I've been, for so long."

About the Author:

Jen Levitt is the author of The Off-Season (Four Way Books, 2016). Her poems have appeared in The Adroit Journal, Boston Review, Tin House, The Yale Review and elsewhere. She lives in New York City and teaches high school students.

Bibliographic Details

Title: So Long
Publisher: Four Way Books
Publication Date: 2023
Binding: Paperback
Condition: Very Good
Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket