A Doll for Throwing
Bang … draws inspiration from the Bauhaus movement in this book-length sequence of prose poems… Bang … draws inspiration from the Bauhaus movement in this book-length sequence of prose poems. … Bang’s beguiling poems, presented in well-ordered boxes, consider the relationship between the spaces people inhabit and narratives of self, nation, and identity. These carefully constructed and curated rooms display shifting cultural definitions of beauty, efficiency, and order. “It was the façade no self could be without,” she asserts, illuminating how identity develops in response to environment—and its implicit politics. Bang’s impeccable collection reads as a “circular mirror of the social order,” reflecting the historicity of our current moment with wit, subtlety,
and grace.
— Publishers Weekly
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Bang’s latest book is a lot of things, and it does all of these with adroitness and an impressive depth of consideration, Bang’s latest book is a lot of things, and it does all of these with adroitness and an impressive depth of consideration. On the surface, it is a veritable exposé of what the prose poem is capable of: the whole book is made up of these delightful containers — representative of the exquisite boxiness of many infamous Bauhaus buildings — and yet because of her treatment of the line within these small boxes, it is never heavy-handed. It is also a wonderful example of how visual art, architecture, and, specifically, modernism, can provide such a rich source for the poetic imagination. Finally — and perhaps above all — A Doll for Throwing is a political statement, returning erased and forgotten names to the forefront of the story, reinserting women into a male-dominated domain while also exploring the impact of these great artistic legacies on our cultural and imaginative traditions. Under her expert poetic gaze, these systems start to undo themselves. And for the better: “the dress is no longer the / thing the future is founded on. You put it on. / You take it off” (31).
— Lynley Edmeades, Jacket2
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