In the ideal world, or the world as written by a first-time novelist romanticizing their coming-of-age as if it meant anything to anyone other than them, I would have bought this at 16 and at 21 bought James Tate because of the blurb from him on the back, then cried at 29 when Tate passed.

First, the title itself evokes the concept of what “Cassette country” would be… it made me think of things like mix tapes, old radios, and the row of cassettes one would have on their own cassette shelf. July) FYI: Actual Air is the first release of Open City Books, a press that is affiliated with Open City magazine.While such poems can seem as performance-oriented as a Spalding Gray monologue, Berman anticipates the criticism in ""Cassette County"" which ends with the compound koan ""anti-showmanship, anti-showmanship, anti-showmanship. He has a firm control of much of his material; a good sense of balance between narrative passages and more free-association types of passages; and a sense of what will be evocative, what will seem like some sort of subtle twist. Others I loved in this collection are Now II, Of Things Found Where They Are Not Supposed To Be, Community College in the Rain, The Charm of 5:30, Cantos for James Michener: Part Ii, and Classic Water.

And all the interviews and articles that emerged about the intervening "lost" years since Silver Jews ended.Shortly after his death, the label Jagjaguwar shared a narrative poem he wrote in 2016 for the label’s 20th anniversary. obviously a lyricist such as Berman is really a poet and obviously he has more to say on the subject of America, addiction, aging, and 5:30 pm. i love david berman’s songwriting, but he’s able to link disparate images more effectively with an instrumental backing. Or just great lines like ' all water is classic water, or ' The nurses are so beautiful, he thought / Try to remember they are covered in germs.