The Palace of Forty Pillars

ISBN: 1959030361

Author: Davoudian, Armen

Condition: New

Brilliant and deft and heartfelt."-Richie Hofmann Wry, tender, and formally innovative, Armen Davoudians debut poetry collection, The Palace of Forty Pillars, tells the story of a self estranged from the world around him as a gay adolescent, an Armenian in Iran, and an immigrant in America. It is a story darkened by the long shadow of global tragedies-the Armenian genocide, war in the Middle East, the specter of homophobia. With masterful attention to rhyme and meter, these poems also carefully witness the most intimate encounters: the awkward distance between mother and son getting ready in the morning, the delicate balance of power between lovers, a tense exchange with the morality police in Iran.In Isfahan, Iran, the eponymous palace has only twenty pillars-but, reflected in its courtyard pool, they become forty. This is the gamble of Davoudians magical, ruminative poems: to recreate, in arts reflection, a home for the speaker, who is unable to return to it in life.