Metrophilias

Connell explores sexual obsession across time and geography with sparse, vivid language in this exotic and sensual thematic collection of prose poems. The settings range across six continents and three dozen cities, from ancient Athens and Sybaris to contemporary Kinshasa and Zurich. The characters’ obsessions cover an astonishing number of specific passions, from inanimate objects to animals, as well as specific actions, including cannibalism and extreme carnivorousness. One of the most striking tales, “Edinburgh,” tells of a man obsessed with the letter W: “That semivowel of horns became for me not merely a representation of love, but the object itself.” The extraordinary and unusual collection, though significantly more than the sum of its parts or an iteration of locations and erotic desires, is best enjoyed in small doses, to avoid reader fatigue. However, readers may wonder why Connell limits his depicted interactions, even between human and nonhuman objects, to the male/female dynamic. (June)