The One on Earth: Selected Works of Mark Baumer

A selection of writings from poet, writer, and climate activist Baumer (1983–2017), who chronicled his barefoot travels across the United States and self-published dozens of books before he was struck and killed by an SUV, are excerpted in this freewheeling, at times hallucinatory collection. Also featured are extracts from travel journals, poems, and various other ephemera, all showcasing Baumer’s unabashedly irreverent, corporeal, and hilarious prose. In “Yachts,” a penis abandons its body to travel South America and study. In “Jonathan Franzen’s leg fell off...,” the author loses a leg and eats it, while his publisher’s employees worry about their jobs. Baumer’s fiction is undeniably strange and energetic, but some of the most rewarding passages are found in his nonfiction work, including statements to the Brown University MFA program proclaiming his desire to be paid to play baseball; and in works that toe the genre line, such as a series titled “Cover Letters” featuring notes addressed to potential employers (“Job People,”) which evoke Joe Wenderoth’s Letters to Wendy’s and begin with a mocking formality that often devolves into wickedly astute eviscerations of the gig economy, consumerism, and the difficulty of making a living. Baumer’s verve, weirdness, and thoughtfulness add up to a strange but astute critique of modern life. (June)