Museum
Bob Arnold
Longhouse 2016
“It was the hour, and nothing stopped the wild things from roaming.”
(from Museum by Bob Arnold)
Museum, An Unlikely Meditation, written by the poet Bob Arnold, is as much an unlikely novel. These are prose poems inspired by a summer long visit to a museum and its grounds when the author “was very curious to know who lived there” and then beyond . . . ever wonder when a museum closes for the evening, when the security guards leave, when the alarm system is set for finer detail, and these great miracles within the venerable exhibition halls can now breath, become alive, perhaps trade places on the walls, and perhaps the museum roof is raised off its foundation, the walls open wide, and are now flattened to the ground —
These tales read as a novel or as short prose poems where no dust has settled, when the stories move from the past to the present and then to re-fresh the past with poignancy, as the tales tremble and await your visit. Interdependent, they are borne out of a stability, purity and activism from Bob Arnold who knows as they truly are. A meeting with the remarkable, they quiver and shake as the many characters are met with a disturbance of excitement, protected by Bob's sincere narrative as if the Jataka tales and Borges have met the genuine practical fantasy of Bradbury — all to converge within a reading of Museum.
The book begins with “Endless Summer”, moves to “Brats”, “A Coin Toss”, “Good Fences and Neighbors”, “Have A Seat”, “Far from the Great Plains”, “Amazing Friends”, “Drive On, Driver”, “The Golden Touch” and “The Bell” — to name a few.
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"Not since Winesburg Ohio
has there been such a book."
— George Willard
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"Not since Winesburg Ohio
has there been such a book."
— George Willard
______________________
236 pages, prose — including a collage of levitating illustrations and photographs, joyously and with wit chosen by the author
Longhouse, December 2016 — $20 (Paypal or check)
Available with free US shipping directly from Longhouse.
This book may be further found on ABE, Alibris, Bibliofind
& Amazon
Please inquire
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