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Mature Themes
Andrew Durbin’s Mature Themes is a hybrid text of poetry, art criticism, and memoir focused on the subject of disingenuity—and what constitutes "personal experience" both online and IRL when to "go deep" in a culture of so many unreliable communication technologies is to resend a text at 3 AM.
Throughout the book, Durbin’s voice mutates into others in order to uncover the fading specters of meaning buried under the pristine surfaces of art and Hollywood, locating below them the other realities that structure our experience of both.
Throughout the book, Durbin’s voice mutates into others in order to uncover the fading specters of meaning buried under the pristine surfaces of art and Hollywood, locating below them the other realities that structure our experience of both.
116 pages, Paperback
First published October 7, 2014
3 people are currently reading
409 people want to read
About the author
Andrew Durbin
20 books74 followersAndrew Durbin is the author of MacArthur Park (2017) and Skyland (2020), both from Nightboat Books. In 2018, MacArthur Park was a finalist for the Believer Book Award. His book about Peter Hujar and Paul Thek, The Wonderful World that Almost Was, is forthcoming from FSG and Granta in April 2026. He is the editor of Jacolby Satterwhite’s How lovely is me being as I am (Carnegie Mellon Press, 2021), Kevin Killian’s Fascination: Memoirs (Semiotexte, 2018), and the chapbook series Say bye to reason and hi to everything (Capricious, 2015). His fiction, criticism, and poetry have appeared in The Believer, BOMB, Boston Review, The New York Review of Books, The London Review of Books, The Paris Review, Triple Canopy, and elsewhere. He lives in London and is the editor-in-chief of frieze magazine.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 5, 2014
Sometimes when a work is so new there’s no way to process it. My mind is a lazy organ, filled with sets designed years ago, peeling paint and rotting, but still in use as a roadmap to reality. My reality, which isn’t real, of course, just a fabrication, a shortcut really, to expedite my way. Why would I want to do that? Lazy, remember. So when I open a book like MATURE THEMES by Andrew Durbin I’m lost and my first instinct is to dismiss it and then quickly find the door. Then something happened, I orient myself, or, more accurately, allow myself not to seek stability, but just read. And I read. And read. Because I couldn’t stop reading. A good marker for what will become my favorite art is art that I can’t understand and reject on first sight, listen, read, but then it becomes intimately familiar and I can’t understand why I ever didn’t understand it. Does that make sense? I hope not. Because I don’t fully understand Durbin’s poetry, but I know it’s poetry. What else could this mishmash of line breaks, essay, first-person, fiction, etc., which is unique and executed with authority, be? There’s so much going on, personal stuff (I think) and public stuff. Durbin’s creativity is a dustbin in which he sweeps up everything and processes it on the page. There’s a lot of pop and celebrity here, but then our culture has a lot of pop and celebrity. Maybe they’re symbols or maybe they’re just objects, placeholders like the worn backgrounds in my head, only here they’re not dormant, they’re material, and like any artist Durbin uses them to tell his story. I don’t know. But I’m thinking. That’s good. I’m cleaning out the waste that has waylaid my experience and replacing it with, well, I guess Durbin’s, but in so doing I’m seeing things freshly. That’s yummy.
March 2, 2015
I loved this short book. It should not really work as well as it does, or at all, being a crazy hodgepodge of memoir, anecdotes, reflections, musings, random bits-and-bobs (no shopping lists though, thank God) ... not to mention the dreaded ‘p’ word. Poetry. We all know that Real Men Do Not Read Poetry.
But the poems flow organically into, and out of, the main text. You cannot really skip them, as you would in a novel where poems have been inserted, for here they are part-and-parcel of the narrative itself. Indeed, they go a long way to crystallising the overarching narrative themes.
If this sounds dry and boring, fear not: Durbin’s mercurial eye covers everything from Justin Bieber to Adidas, Ducati and Tamagotchi virtual pets to Paul Schrader’s 2013 movie ‘The Canyons’ (which featured the straight-porn star James Deen) to Rimbaud and the true meaning of the Cloud. New York itself, gritty and resplendent, seedy and shadowy, yet shot through with brilliance (there is a fantastic riff on cloudscapes and light) is a major, moody character.
The poetry in and of itself is particularly significant in terms of the New Narrative literary movement, which was founded in San Francisco in the 1970s and early 1980s by (ironically) two poets in response to the so-called Language Poets. The New Narrative attempted to co-opt the techniques of poetry in the arena of the novel so as to give its ongoing transformation and evolution a kick in the ass.
Prior to reading Mature Themes, I knew nothing about the New Narrative. Reading about it further, however, has given me a whole new field of writers and poets to explore – for which I am infinitely grateful to Durbin. Apart from pointing the way forward for the form of the novel itself, he (fittingly) refers to the past and how we stand to learn from both our heritage and our forebears.
I am perennially fascinated by books that disrupt the novel’s perceived hermetic boundaries, and writers who interrogate the reader’s role in fiction’s discourse. Still, for me it remains lightning in a bottle: I found Satin Island by Tom McCarthy to be too contrived, while I loved the messiness and bleeding-edge nature of Mature Themes.
Interestingly, a recent Lambda Literary interview with Andrew Durbin makes more of the connection between Hurricane Sandy and the AIDS epidemic in New York in particular than there is in the book itself. We only learn of Durbin’s putative sexual orientation nearly towards the end (and even then it is unclear), while the AIDS epidemic itself is treated almost as an aside in the greater flow of socio-cultural flotsam and jetsam.
This is an important and brave novel though. Durbin strikes a balance between mapping one’s soul in a postmodern context, where irony and meta-textuality are paramount, to bearing your heart in such a way that the emotional heft of this act ruptures the very nature of the text itself.
P.S. This is probably a unique instance where Durbin highlights the tactile deficiencies of the ebook format: the cover features a painting by Alex Da Corte entitled ‘Body Without Organs’ … however, the front and back covers are flipped, with the title and author name actually appearing on the back. Of course, you only get the single cover in the ebook – which you are unaware is actually the back cover. A neat trick or a profound statement? Well, that is postmodernism in a nutshell, I suppose: seeing the world ass-backwards.
But the poems flow organically into, and out of, the main text. You cannot really skip them, as you would in a novel where poems have been inserted, for here they are part-and-parcel of the narrative itself. Indeed, they go a long way to crystallising the overarching narrative themes.
If this sounds dry and boring, fear not: Durbin’s mercurial eye covers everything from Justin Bieber to Adidas, Ducati and Tamagotchi virtual pets to Paul Schrader’s 2013 movie ‘The Canyons’ (which featured the straight-porn star James Deen) to Rimbaud and the true meaning of the Cloud. New York itself, gritty and resplendent, seedy and shadowy, yet shot through with brilliance (there is a fantastic riff on cloudscapes and light) is a major, moody character.
The poetry in and of itself is particularly significant in terms of the New Narrative literary movement, which was founded in San Francisco in the 1970s and early 1980s by (ironically) two poets in response to the so-called Language Poets. The New Narrative attempted to co-opt the techniques of poetry in the arena of the novel so as to give its ongoing transformation and evolution a kick in the ass.
Prior to reading Mature Themes, I knew nothing about the New Narrative. Reading about it further, however, has given me a whole new field of writers and poets to explore – for which I am infinitely grateful to Durbin. Apart from pointing the way forward for the form of the novel itself, he (fittingly) refers to the past and how we stand to learn from both our heritage and our forebears.
I am perennially fascinated by books that disrupt the novel’s perceived hermetic boundaries, and writers who interrogate the reader’s role in fiction’s discourse. Still, for me it remains lightning in a bottle: I found Satin Island by Tom McCarthy to be too contrived, while I loved the messiness and bleeding-edge nature of Mature Themes.
Interestingly, a recent Lambda Literary interview with Andrew Durbin makes more of the connection between Hurricane Sandy and the AIDS epidemic in New York in particular than there is in the book itself. We only learn of Durbin’s putative sexual orientation nearly towards the end (and even then it is unclear), while the AIDS epidemic itself is treated almost as an aside in the greater flow of socio-cultural flotsam and jetsam.
This is an important and brave novel though. Durbin strikes a balance between mapping one’s soul in a postmodern context, where irony and meta-textuality are paramount, to bearing your heart in such a way that the emotional heft of this act ruptures the very nature of the text itself.
P.S. This is probably a unique instance where Durbin highlights the tactile deficiencies of the ebook format: the cover features a painting by Alex Da Corte entitled ‘Body Without Organs’ … however, the front and back covers are flipped, with the title and author name actually appearing on the back. Of course, you only get the single cover in the ebook – which you are unaware is actually the back cover. A neat trick or a profound statement? Well, that is postmodernism in a nutshell, I suppose: seeing the world ass-backwards.
February 18, 2015
Basically this whole thing went over my head I'm an idiot but I could tell if I were smart with a brain that hasn't been fried by too much twitter I'd think it were very good. Lol when I was buying this book at Politics and Prose the cashier told me he was friends w Durbin. Cool. I'm stupid
Read
July 1, 2020Andrew Durbin's "Mature Themes" is like seeing a beautiful Baroque painted sunset as someone's phone background. Really, that's the best metaphor I can possibly use to describe this collection of critical essays and poetry. Durbin's stand out sections read "Clueless" against Baudelaire to describe the crisis of the modern flanuese, and a poem that describes his personal fantasy bore from a Ciara music video. What Durbin does in this book is present readers with almost a handbook for how to best understand the future and present effects of the internet and technological condition on our consumption of both pop culture and high art by positing that the making of high culture items and icons accessible via the internet they are subject to the same interaction by the consumer as say, Selena Gomez's discography. While Durbin presupposes that all consumers have the same priveldged level of access and capital to understand this all, he empowers the consumer through his personal insertions of fantasy and feeling into the work, showing that responses, connections and interpretations done by the consumer carry the same weight as the maker of the work. Durbin lumps together all forms of Western mass culture - high art and thought and the poppiest of pop, and levels out the playing field between them revealing common threads that are ultimately created by the means of consumption. Beyond all that, the the book is stunningly beautiful in its writing.
I originally picked up this book as a personal read outside of book club - it covered all my bases: art, poetry, Katy Perry, and Ducatis all under sext section titles like "Warm Leatherette." As I read it I saw two subtexts jumping out while Durbin described his Calvin Klein briefs. At first, I thought about the sheer power of information that the internet has only amplified. Much of my interest in digital inclusion lies on my own feelings that the internet has such a power for leisure and personal exploration that the self knowledge and pleasures it holds should be offered to all; and that the cultural consumption element of the internet is just as valuable as labor skills. Secondly, Durbin's work reminded me of the original utopian democratic dreams of the internet: a space for fair and equal consumption. Well, that didn't happen; and, Durbin's book is as capitalist and assuming of wealth and whiteness as they come. With these two things in mind, I really do think Durbin's book reminded me of the truly critical aspect of our work that internet use is not just a place for work but for pleasure as well and the self learning that comes with it.
This book is gorgeous. Please read it! Any CTEP who loves the top 40 hits should read it for the unabashed praise of it. I really recommend this to anyone who has ever been embarrassed for loving work from the culture industry because this is full of love and fantasies about the beauty of it!
I originally picked up this book as a personal read outside of book club - it covered all my bases: art, poetry, Katy Perry, and Ducatis all under sext section titles like "Warm Leatherette." As I read it I saw two subtexts jumping out while Durbin described his Calvin Klein briefs. At first, I thought about the sheer power of information that the internet has only amplified. Much of my interest in digital inclusion lies on my own feelings that the internet has such a power for leisure and personal exploration that the self knowledge and pleasures it holds should be offered to all; and that the cultural consumption element of the internet is just as valuable as labor skills. Secondly, Durbin's work reminded me of the original utopian democratic dreams of the internet: a space for fair and equal consumption. Well, that didn't happen; and, Durbin's book is as capitalist and assuming of wealth and whiteness as they come. With these two things in mind, I really do think Durbin's book reminded me of the truly critical aspect of our work that internet use is not just a place for work but for pleasure as well and the self learning that comes with it.
This book is gorgeous. Please read it! Any CTEP who loves the top 40 hits should read it for the unabashed praise of it. I really recommend this to anyone who has ever been embarrassed for loving work from the culture industry because this is full of love and fantasies about the beauty of it!
May 25, 2025
Reading this 10 years on, it's really interesting how so many of the pop culture referents have become irrelevant, or their perception has completely flipped (Katy Perry lol). It's a rare case of "it is of its time" being a good thing though, it's a very stimulating book and very fun and engaging to read as well. Wish he hadn't forsaken experimentation in his later books actually!
February 20, 2015
is in such a weird feedback loop with pop culture
April 27, 2020
Wooooo
This book totally convinced me!!!
Andrew is for sure my favorite contemporary writer.
Mature Themes is such a rich read, very genre bending and inventive in form.
All modern poets should take notes, it shifts perfectly between the personal and universal,
the analogy of mundane life hand in hand with surrealism is worked in such a smart way it all becomes top grade poetry.
This book will feel like it appeals to the idea of modernity and "present" for a long time.
Modern but not tacky.
I just had to write a review. This one deserves all the praise it can get.
Class stuff.
This book totally convinced me!!!
Andrew is for sure my favorite contemporary writer.
Mature Themes is such a rich read, very genre bending and inventive in form.
All modern poets should take notes, it shifts perfectly between the personal and universal,
the analogy of mundane life hand in hand with surrealism is worked in such a smart way it all becomes top grade poetry.
This book will feel like it appeals to the idea of modernity and "present" for a long time.
Modern but not tacky.
I just had to write a review. This one deserves all the praise it can get.
Class stuff.
May 28, 2025
Just the kind of short weird and apparently senseless millennial writing that is rooted in postmodernism and it's affect on our stance in the world, great honestly. My kind of brain numbing I'm actually intelligent or appear to be kind of thing.
September 5, 2023
FIVE STARS
Reading Mature Themes was, for me, nothing short of pure delight. It was the rare sort of work that send me down all sorts of rabbit holes after completing the book, learning about the styles from which it appears to be derived - also largely thanks to another review here on Goodreads by Gerhard. This lead to me discovering New Narrative, from which Durbin seems to have drawn influence.
Sometimes it’s quite difficult to understand what is truth and what is fiction in this work. Generally, by the end of the chapter, everything has evolved into some unreal realm of utter chaos. It was riveting. It felt so brilliantly contemporary and relevant in all of the ways I most appreciate. It felt like a giant snapshot of only roughly defined time, anchored in pop culture and the body of the writer. It felt raw and honest, and then suddenly extremely surreal. Sometimes both at the same time. Sometimes it felt hard to be sure which it was, if either.
Some might - and seeming do - have a hard time wrapping their head around it. It’s perhaps, and I hate to say it, rather “avant-garde” stylistically, so that’s to be expected. It’s f’ing weird. It’s f’ing wonderful. It kicked up a curiosity in me to find other works, both contemporary and otherwise, in similar forms.
I’ve unfortunately still not returned to Mature Themes since finishing it for the first time - my reading list has grown uncontrollably long, a problem this book inadvertently contributed to - but I’m looking forward to rediscovering it again.
Reading Mature Themes was, for me, nothing short of pure delight. It was the rare sort of work that send me down all sorts of rabbit holes after completing the book, learning about the styles from which it appears to be derived - also largely thanks to another review here on Goodreads by Gerhard. This lead to me discovering New Narrative, from which Durbin seems to have drawn influence.
Sometimes it’s quite difficult to understand what is truth and what is fiction in this work. Generally, by the end of the chapter, everything has evolved into some unreal realm of utter chaos. It was riveting. It felt so brilliantly contemporary and relevant in all of the ways I most appreciate. It felt like a giant snapshot of only roughly defined time, anchored in pop culture and the body of the writer. It felt raw and honest, and then suddenly extremely surreal. Sometimes both at the same time. Sometimes it felt hard to be sure which it was, if either.
Some might - and seeming do - have a hard time wrapping their head around it. It’s perhaps, and I hate to say it, rather “avant-garde” stylistically, so that’s to be expected. It’s f’ing weird. It’s f’ing wonderful. It kicked up a curiosity in me to find other works, both contemporary and otherwise, in similar forms.
I’ve unfortunately still not returned to Mature Themes since finishing it for the first time - my reading list has grown uncontrollably long, a problem this book inadvertently contributed to - but I’m looking forward to rediscovering it again.
December 17, 2014
Through juxtaposition and verbal collage of all those hollow elements of modern culture Durbin unearths the actual humanistic parts of our capitalist society that most of us have already given up on.
March 14, 2016
weird book
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews