Publisher's Synopsis
'I can't begin to say what brought me here,' confesses the narrator of Midcentury, a verse novella set in Ireland in the nineteen forties.
Rich in historical insight, this multi-layered narrative probes the mind and heart of an American lexicographer, down on his luck, who finds solace in the Irish landscape and a respite in Ireland's wartime neutrality. Seeking definitions in a culture which resists them, he discovers in Irish history a refraction of his fortunes and obsessions.
By turns passionate and reflective, ironic and visionary, Midcentury tells an engrossing story - one of defeat and recovery, devastation and spiritual renewal.
A native of eastern Iowa, Ben Howard is the author of The Pressed Melodeon: Essays on Modern Irish Writing (Story Line Press, 1996), the verse novella Midcentury (Salmon, 1997), and four previous collections of poems, most recently Dark Pool (Salmon, 2004) and Leaf, Sunlight, Asphalt (Salmon, 2009). He has received numerous awards, including the Milton Dorfman Prize in Poetry and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is Professor of English Emeritus at Alfred University.
