At the start of Effacement, we are told: “To a body anything can happen, / Like a brick.” This epigraph announces two legacies: that of poet George Oppen, and that of the body in pain. Indeed, Liz Arnold’s new book is the only one I’ve seen that carries some of that inexplicable magic I find in Oppen’s work, and its meditation of what it means to occupy a body is nothing short of stunning. “How much of a self,” Arnold asks, “is skin?”

The vehicles through which the body might be co More...

This book made me want to read MORE lineated accounts of facial plastic surgery performed upon the World War I wounded. That is probably a huge accomplishment.