Information Desk
An Epic
Reeks: Penguin Poets
Robyn Schiff
- **Named
- a
- 2024
- Pulitzer
- Prize
- Finalist
- and
- a
- New
- York
- Times
- Book
- Review
- Editors'
- Choice
- Pick“Among
- the
- year's
- highlights
- .
- .
- .
- groundbreaking,
- epic
- .
- .
- .
- Like
- visitors
- exiting
- the
- Met’s
- galleries,
- readers
- will
- emerge
- from
- Information
- Desk
- bedazzled
- by
- the
- transformative
- horizons
- of
- art.”
- —Washington
- Post“An
- effluvial
- rush
- of
- memory,
- desire,
- data,
- and
- metaphor
- .
- .
- .
- It’s
- bracing
- to
- encounter
- a
- mind
- so
- voracious,
- so
- unapologetic
- in
- its
- intelligence.”
- —New
- York
- Review
- of
- BooksA
- book-length
- poem
- set
- in
- the
- Metropolitan
- Museum
- of
- Art,
- from
- a
- writer
- whose
- work
- offers
- “something
- few
- poets
- ever
- discover:
- a
- vision
- of
- the
- whole
- world”
- (Dan
- Chiasson,
- The
- New
- Yorker)**Robyn
- Schiff’s
- fourth
- collection
- is
- an
- ambitious
- book-length
- poem
- in
- three
- parts
- set
- at
- The
- Metropolitan
- Museum
- of
- Art’s
- information
- desk,
- where
- Schiff
- long
- ago
- held
- a
- staff
- position.
- Elaborately
- mapping
- an
- interconnected
- route
- in
- and
- out
- of
- the
- museum
- through
- history,
- material,
- and
- memory,
- Information
- Desk:
- An
- Epic
- takes
- us
- on
- an
- anguished
- soul-quest
- and
- ecstatic
- intellectual
- query
- to
- confront
- the
- violent
- forces
- that
- inform
- the
- museum’s
- encyclopedic
- collection
- and
- the
- spiritual
- powers
- of
- art.Novelistic
- in
- its
- sweep,
- frantically
- informative,
- and
- deeply
- intimate
- in
- its
- private
- recollections,
- Information
- Desk:
- An
- Epic
- wayfares
- with
- riveting
- lyric
- intensity
- through
- an
- epic
- array
- of
- topics
- and
- concerns,
- including
- illusion,
- deception,
- self-deception,
- complicity,
- lecherous
- coworkers,
- the
- composition
- of
- pigment,
- the
- scattering
- of
- seeds,
- ideas,
- and
- capital,
- and
- insect
- infestations
- spreading
- within
- artwork.
- Along
- the
- way,
- Schiff
- pauses
- to
- invoke
- three
- terrifying
- muses—parasitic
- wasps—in
- desperate
- awe
- of
- their
- powers
- of
- precision
- and
- generative
- energy.
- Information
- Desk:
- An
- Epic
- undertakes
- a
- hemorrhaging
- ekphrastic
- journey
- through
- artifice
- and
- the
- natural world.
pro-mbooks3 : libris
