hungree throat Front Cover

Paperback / softback
ISBN: 9780889227453
Pages: 224
Pub. Date: April 15 2012
Dimensions: 9" x 6" x 0.5"
Rights: Available: WORLD
Categories
Poetry / POE011000

  • FICTION / LGBTQ+ / Gay
  • POETRY / Canadian

Shop local bookstores

hungree throat
a novel in meditaysyun
By bill bissett

Written in his unique phonetic language, bill bissett’s second novel-poem, hungree throat, recounts the relationship of two men – one bold and unafraid, the other burdened by terrible memories and unable to trust. We witness ten years of a shared life marked by hunger “4 breething being singing eeting digesting speeking saying food kissing watr love.”

“…plays with connections and tensions between images and language by weaving together drawings, visual poems, lyric poems, and prose while telling the story of the relationship between two gay men through several stages of their lives. In classic bissett style, the short sections are written in phonetic rather than grammatical English and often integrate discussions between the characters on meditation, metaphysics, and the challenge of overcoming fears, traumas, and disappointments. The spiritual, Zen-like focus of the book adds to the salience of the psychedelic images and weaves them into the narrative. … noteworthy, especially for bissett’s mesmerizing images and their interactions with the language surrounding them … an interesting and intriguing reading/viewing of the struggles of coming to terms with, and visualizing, a tumultuous world and ‘how we feel abt unsirtintee.’”
Canadian Literature

“an oddity even by bissett standards, not because of its content but because it purports to be a narrative … Loosely speaking, it’s the tale of two new lovers, ‘howard n brian,’ and the setting is domestic, but even so their encounters, dialogues, and interior monologues shine with the golden light of bissett’s illumination. Which, by the way, is capable of transforming even the most banal thought into poetry.”
– Georgia Straight

“…an interesting and intriguing reading/viewing of the struggles of coming to terms with, and visualizing, a tumultuous world and ‘how we feel abt unsirtintee.’”
Canadian Literature

“... bissett’s illumination...is capable of transforming even the most banal thought into poetry.”
– Georgia Straight