Karen Green writing on David Foster Wallace: 'an instant classic'
It鈥檚 been 鈥渁n instant classic,鈥� 鈥渁n astonishment,鈥� and 鈥渙ne of the most moving, strange, original, harrowing, and beautiful documents of grief and reckoning.鈥�
鈥淏ough Down,鈥� artist Karen Green鈥檚 collection of poems and collages of grief following the death of her husband, the writer David Foster Wallace, is garnering attention and excellent reviews five years after Wallace committed suicide at their home in 2008.
The delicate, vellum-wrapped volume is Green鈥檚 first book. A collection of poems and small postage stamp-sized collages by the artist, it was published earlier this spring by Siglo Press.
Green鈥檚 writing is at once unsentimental and haunting.聽
鈥淚 worry I broke your kneecaps when I cut you down,鈥� she writes of finding Wallace鈥檚 body hanging on their patio. 鈥淚 keep hearing that sound.鈥澛�
In a touching show of tenderness, she recalls the small, mundane details of her husband鈥檚 life throughout the book 鈥� Wallace looking for his glasses, getting spinach stuck between his teeth, telling Green she smells 鈥渁gathokakological.鈥�
鈥淭here are traces of him everywhere,鈥� writes the . 鈥淸A] bag scented by his American Spirits, some leftover pills that she pops in desperate moments, the dogs he treasured... His ashes sit 鈥榠n a foil-wrapped box next to portraits of our moms, reflecting sunlight.鈥欌��
鈥淚 keep your deodorant, which I use sparingly,鈥� Green writes. 鈥淚 make a slimy mustache with it before I tuck in.鈥�
Her simple, yet sublime, recollections are garnering laudatory reviews for 鈥淏ough Down.鈥�
鈥淢s Green turns out to be a profoundly good writer,鈥� writes the . 鈥溾�橞ough Down鈥� is lovely, smart and funny, in addition to being brutally clear and sad.... Ms Green registers the complexity of grief and in the process makes something beautiful out of the saddest stuff in the world.鈥�
Green 鈥渆nacts Auden's definition of poetry: 鈥榯he clear expression of mixed feelings,鈥欌�� writes the .
And the calls her memoir 鈥渨ise, open, intelligent, and pained,鈥� one of the most 鈥渂eautiful documents of grief and reckoning I鈥檝e ever read.鈥�
Husna Haq is a Monitor correspondent.
