The Others

by Matthew Rohrer

A gripping, eerie, and hilarious novel-in-verse from poet Matthew Rohrer. In a Russian-doll of fictional episodes, we follow a midlevel publishing assistant over the course of a day as he encounters ghost stories, science fiction adventures, Victorian hashish eating, and robot bigfoots. Rohrer mesmerizes with wildly imaginative tales and resonant verse in this compelling love letter to storytelling.

this night
they all seemed asleep
for a while the stark shadows
held me
only my mind moved

wildly behind my eyes
until I heard a tiny
song coming from the driver
song of a bandit’s broken
heart, song of his betrayal
I slept and dreamed I was awake

Matthew Rohrer is the author of Surrounded by Friends (Wave Books, 2015), Destroyer and Preserver (Wave Books, 2011), A Plate of Chicken (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2009), Rise Up (Wave Books, 2007) and A Green Light (Verse Press, 2004), which was shortlisted for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize. He is also the author of Satellite (Verse Press, 2001), and co-author, with Joshua Beckman, of Nice Hat. Thanks. (Verse Press, 2002), and the audio CD Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. He has appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered and The Next Big Thing. His first book, A Hummock in the Malookas was selected for the National Poetry Series by Mary Oliver in 1994. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches at NYU.

Genres: Poetry

248 pages, Paperback

First published May 2, 2017

About the author

Matthew Rohrer is the author of Destroyer and Preserver (forthcoming from Wave Books in 2011), A Plate of Chicken (Ugly Duckling Presse, 2009), Rise Up (Wave Books, 2007) and A Green Light (Verse Press, 2004), which was shortlisted for the 2005 Griffin Poetry Prize. He is also the author of Satellite (Verse Press, 2001), and co-author, with Joshua Beckman, of Nice Hat. Thanks. (Verse Press, 2002), and the audio CD Adventures While Preaching the Gospel of Beauty. He has appeared on NPR's "All Things Considered" and "The Next Big Thing." His first book, A Hummock in the Malookas was selected for the National Poetry Series by Mary Oliver in 1994. He lives in Brooklyn, New York, and teaches in the undergraduate writing program at NYU.

For more information on this author, go to:
http://www.wavepoetry.com/authors/32-...

Reviews

[☘Misericordia☘ ⚡ϟ⚡⛈⚡☁ ❇️❤❣ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jarring. Little poetry in there.

Q:
I lay back on my bed
imagining I was perfect
but knew I was not (c)

[Benjamin Niespodziany · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a unique novel in verse. Like flipping channels on a television, or opening random books on a shelf. The lighthouse story was great. Matthew Rohrer's matryoshka joyride is a delight. I have yet to be let down by one of his books.

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

A flawlessly written illumination of the myriad ways narrative constructs our existence and is in turn constructed by it.

[Tyler McGaughey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Never heard of Gilles de Rais until this week and now I've unwittingly read two consecutive books that mention him. What is the cosmos trying to tell me?

[Victors · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every line is like a punch to the face by Mike Tyson. I had to take a break every few pages because it was too much.

[Joe Imwalle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this at Moe’s and began reading it right away. Finished the next day. Best description of being high ever. This book is fun. A fun snack of an experience. Great flow. Verse novel.

[dev ☆♪ · Rating 4 out of 5]

honestly just a really pleasant funny read. love a novel in lines.

[Wampus Reynolds · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been interested in this since it got the Believer award 6 years ago but put off for what I now know are silly fears (a novel in verse? A poet’s first novel?).

This book is wonderful. It’s as if a modern Walter Mitty gets stuck in the city, but his escapes are manuscripts, books, stories and dreams. The verse and meter are handled so well they propel the story and offshoots.

And it ends with a coup de grace that gave a rush of complex emotion (mostly joy) that I’m bound to reread it soon.

[Charlie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matthew Rohrer's The Others is a verse narrative that flits in and out of different stories to show the ways in which we interact with story-telling and myth-making on a daily basis. It's quite odd as a book- not that anything particularly weird happens within the narrative, but because it doesn't seem to concerned with making any big statements about its themes.

[Jaclyn Payne · Rating 4 out of 5]

To quote my teacher, "We're reading about someone who is reading." I loved the side stories the main character reads/watches. I absolutely did not like Pam at all and nearly threw the book across the room when she overstepped a major boundary. But everyone else was enjoyable to read. Except for the homeless guy in the church. He creeped me out.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story in a story didn’t feel too forced until the television episode. Then it felt a little too gimmicky, such that I could tell if it was meant to feel that way or the narrative at that part wasn’t as strong as the frame tale or the other stories.

[Rachel B · Rating 5 out of 5]

Go see him read if you can.

[Brian Salvatore · Rating 3 out of 5]

A spiraling read that blurs the line between stories in verse. A more interesting idea than a read, but still worthwhile.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Smart and enjoyable mash of story styles, leaves this uncertain of a style for itself?

[Antonio · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to describe this book b/c it's not clear what it is, maybe a novella? It's prose and cuts between fragments of multiple stories. I didn't see any unifying theme between the stories. The most relevant comparison I can think of is a book like Cloud Atlas. But that's a bad comparison.

It was enjoyable and interesting. There is definitely a relationship to Rohrer's work like The Emperor and it definitely asks for rereadings. I would recommend it to anyone who loves his poetry, experimental fiction, are an interesting book for a nice spring afternoon.