The Kiss
Intimacies from Writers
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- $18.99
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- $18.99
Publisher Description
Kisses from Nick Flynn, Rebecca Makkai, Pico Iyer, Ilyse Kusnetz, Andre Dubus III, Christian Kiefer, Camille T. Dungy, Major Jackson, Bich Minh Nguyen, Terrance Hayes, Ada Limón, Honor Moore, Téa Obreht and Dan Sheehan, Kazim Ali, Beth Ann Fennelly, and others
In this wide-ranging collection of essays, stories, graphic memoir, and cross-genre work, writers explore the deeply human act of kissing, and share their thoughts on a specific kiss—the unexpected and unforgettable, the sublime and the ambiguous, the devastating and the regenerative. Selections from beloved authors “tantalize with such grace that they linger sweetly in your mind for days” (New York Times Book Review), as they explore the messy and complicated intimacies that exist in our actual lives, as well as in the complicated landscape of the imagination.
This is a book meant to be read from cover to cover, just as much as it’s meant to be dipped into—with each kiss pulling us closer to the moments in our lives that matter most.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Memoirist and poet Turner (My Life as a Foreign Country) brings together the work of more than 50 writers to create an affecting and thorough exploration of a universal human gesture. Eschewing a simple recounting of romance and affection, the contributors explore a wide variety of kisses, including the perfect kiss of mutual magnetic attraction, the forced kiss of an unwanted advance, and the complicated parental peck on the cheek. The selections take the shape of letters, memoir, poems, dialogue, graphic narrative, and fiction. The book's greatest strength is the wide latitude the contributors are given in both content and tone. This opens the door for both a hilarious back-and-forth between T a Obreht and Dan Sheehan on iconic screen kisses ("That's the strange beauty of the Pacino kiss, though: you never know what you're gonna get") and heartbreaking personal narratives, such as Laure-Anne Bosselaar's description of discovering an unfinished poem from her late partner, poet Kurt Brown, about "that kiss I failed to give you," which "will be the last of me to die." While not all the selections carry the same resonance, they come together into an emotionally complex experience that will make readers reevaluate a seemingly simple sign of affection.
