The Weather

American Trilogy #1

by Kenneth Goldsmith

Poetry. "Kenneth Goldsmith is without doubt the leading conceptual poet of this time. His poetry, which draws from Fluxus, Dada, and conceptual art traditions, is clever and self aware. With now classics such as FIDGET, SOLILOQUY, and DAY (all available form SPD), he has made poetry out of the mundane and when reading his work one is forced to reconsider the stakes and the measurements of aesthetic practice. THE WEATHER, a collection of weather reports, is one more test of poetry. And what is most striking about this book is that it aces the test. There is something wonderfully celebratory and shockingly pleasant and stimulatingly interesting about reading day after day of weather gone by"--Juliana Spahr.

Genres: Poetry

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Chris]

I have to listen to the radio in order to fall asleep. Reading this book is like listening to the radio.

[Andrew]

he's such a great reader of t/his work that i wish he'd release this book as a recording

[Tom]

A year's worth of weather reports--reports which, by convention, have limited vocabulary and fairly rigid rhetorical structures. And since these are transcriptions of spoken weather reports, the syntax is often skewed and compressed--this ain't polished writing. Is it boring? Hell, yes! But it's funny, too, in its severe, minimalist way.

One thing I think you'll never find in a review of a book by Kenneth Goldsmith: "Spoiler alert!" Except to say there's no spoiling to alert you to.

[twrctdrv]

I mean, it really is a pretty good idea, and there's some real density to it as well, but the idea of reading it doesn't last for a whole 120 pages. Past my fascination of how much colder it gets in New York than Florida in the Winter section (and I question if this was intended) and the weather reports from Iraq in Spring, the first two sections, it was a hard read, and overall not entirely worth it.

[Carrie]

i tried to read this once. I just couldn't.

[Bonnie]

This guy's really hot. I'd like to hump him out of his fur coat.