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Published Sep 2013
64 pages
Genre: Poetry & Novels in Verse
Publication Information
The long-awaited third poetry book by Vijay Seshadri, "one of the most respected poets working in America today" (Time Out New York)
First I had three
apocalyptic visions, each more terrible than the last.
The graves open, and the sea rises to kill us all.
Then the doorbell rang, and I went downstairs and signed for two packages—
—from "This Morning"
Vijay Seshadri's new poetry is assured and expert, his line as canny as ever. In an array of poetic forms from the rhyming lyric to the philosophical meditation to the prose essay, 3 Sections confronts perplexing divisions of contemporary life—a wayward history, an indeterminate future, and a present condition of wanting to outthink time. This is an extraordinary book, witty and vivacious, by one of America's best poets.
Pulitzer Prize, 2014
"Starred Review. Deft yet direct, often funny and yet alert to existential quandaries, this third outing... could be the most versatile, as well as one of the most successful, volumes this year." - Publishers Weekly
"He is so talented, so able, and writes with such panache, Seshadri is in danger of a weakness few contemporary poets even approach." - Booklist
"Confront[s] contemporary dilemmas with caustic humor." - The New Yorker
"An extraordinarily naked modern consciousness, an intensely experienced dislocation, a beautiful intelligence: Seshadri's poetry is exhilarating." - Jonathan Franzen
"Vijay Seshadri is a skeptic and a seeker, and the speaker, the philosophical hero, of these beautifully understated, intellectually ambitious poems is also one—wry, self-scrutinizing, keenly observant, abashed, bemused, conflicted, prone to melancholy questions, troubled by his own thoughts, susceptible to daydreaming, determined to figure things out, to sum them up, to find words for them. 3 Sections is a rare adventure in conciousness." - Edward Hirsch
This information about 3 Sections was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Vijay Seshadri is the author of two previous poetry collections, Wild Kingdom and The Long Meadow, the winner of the James Laughlin Award. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
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