Mr. West

by Sarah Blake · 2015

+ Want to read

Mr. West covers the main events in superstar Kanye West's life while also following the poet on her year spent researching, writing, and pregnant. The book explores how we are drawn to celebrities—to their portrayal in the media—and how we sometimes find great private meaning in another person's public story, even across lines of gender and race. Blake's aesthetics take her work from prose poems to lineated free verse to tightly wound lyrics to improbably successful sestinas. The poems fully engage pop culture as a strange, complicated presence that is revealing of America itself. This is a daring debut collection and a groundbreaking work. An online reader's companion will be available at http: //sarahblake.site.wesleyan.edu.

Themes
celebritycelebrityMore like thisLess of this
Setting
21st century21st centuryMore like thisLess of this
Mood
thought provokingthought provokingMore like thisLess of this
Audience
adult
Length
short · 128 pages
Form
poetrypoetryMore like thisLess of this

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

BuyAmazonGoogle Books

BorrowOpen LibraryA library near you

MoreCompare prices

Liked Mr. West? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked Mr. West. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. Rising Farrah Field · 2009 Shares poetry
  2. Rookery Traci Brimhall · 2010 Shares poetry
  3. A Brief History of Time Shaindel Beers · 2008 Shares poetry
  4. A Sleepwalk on the Severn Alice Oswald · 2009 Shares poetry
See more recommendations →

“People who read Mr. West tend to reach for these next.”

  1. My Love Is A Dead Arctic Explorer Paige Ackerson-Kiely · 2012
  2. Singing Knives (Poetry Series No 18) Frank Stanford · 1979
  3. Hip Logic Terrance Hayes · 2002
  4. Application for Release from the Dream: Poems Tony Hoagland · 2015

“If you want more of the same, start with these.”

  1. Debts & Lessons Lynn Xu · 2013
  2. Heaven Rowan Ricardo Phillips · 2015
  3. The Wilderness: Poems Sandra Lim · 2014
  4. Mistaking Each Other for Ghosts Lawrence Raab · 2015

“If it was the poetry that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. Sunny Wednesday Noelle Kocot · 2009
  2. Archicembalo G.C. Waldrep III · 2009
  3. Self-Portrait with Crayon Allison Benis White · 2009
  4. The Book of Whispering in the Projection Booth Joshua Marie Wilkinson · 2009

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. The Little Edges Fred Moten · 2014
  2. She Tries Her Tongue, Her Silence Softly Breaks M. NourbeSe Philip · 1989
  3. Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities Kazim Ali · 2009
  4. Real Karaoke People Ed Bok Lee · 2005

Report a problem