Sign-In
Cart
Eunoia: The Upgraded Edition
Paperback
Publisher Price: $14.95
ISBN13: 9781552452257
Publisher: Coach House Books
Published: Oct 14 2005
Pages: 120
Weight: 0.37
Height: 0.40 Width: 5.10 Depth: 8.20
Language: English
Winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize (2002)
Stunning and masterful in its execution, Eunoia is a five-chapter book in which each chapter is a univocal lipogram.
The word 'eunoia, ' which literally means 'beautiful thinking, ' is the shortest word in English that contains all five vowels. Directly inspired by the Oulipo (l'Ouvroir de LittÃ(c)rature Potentielle), a French writers' group interested in experimenting with different forms of literary constraint, Eunoia is a five-chapter book in which each chapteris a univocal lipogram - the first chapter has A as its only vowel, the second chapter E, etc. Each vowel takes on a distinct personality: the I is egotistical and romantic, the O jocular and obscene, the E elegiac and epic (including a retelling of the Iliad!).
Stunning in its implications and masterful in its execution, Eunoia has developed a cult following, garnering extensive praise and winning the Griffin Poetry Prize. The original edition was never released in the U.S., but it has already been a bestseller in Canada and the U.K. (published by Canongate Books), where it was listed as one of the Times' top ten books of 2008.
This new edition features several new but related poems by Christian Bok and an expanded afterword.
'Eunoia is a novel that will drive everybody sane.' --Samuel Delany
'Eunoia takes the lipogram and rendersit obsolete.' --Kenneth Goldsmith
'A marvellous, musical texture of rhymes and echoes.' --Harry Mathews
'An exemplary monument for 21st century poetry.' --Charles Bernstein
'Bök's dazzling word games are the literary sensation of the year.' --The Times
'A resounding success ... brilliant.' --The Guardian
'Brilliant ... beautiful and strange.' --Today Programme, BBC Radio 4
'Impressive.' --Sunday Telegraph
'No mere Christmas stocking filler for Countdown fans. Rather, it's an ingenious little novel ... playful and irreverent ... charming.' --Metro
Also in
General Poetry
Dante's Vita Nuova, New Edition: A Translation and an Essay
Alighieri, Dante
Pitavy, Francois
Paperback
Sounding the Seasons Enlarged Edition: One Hundred and Ten Sonnets for the Christian Year
Guite, Malcolm
Paperback
Lao Tzu: Tao Te Ching: A Book about the Way and the Power of the Way
Lao Tzu
Le Guin, Ursula K.
Paperback
They Bloom Because of You: Poems on the Infinite Love, Growth, and Magic of Motherhood
Urlichs, Jessica
Paperback
Ariel: The Restored Edition: A Facsimile of Plath's Manuscript, Reinstating Her Original Selection and Arrangement
Plath, Sylvia
Paperback
This Is the Main Event: Discovering the Life You Long for in the Life You Have
Smith, Joshua Luke
Hardcover