Myles depicts the raw pathos of loss with keen insight. Myles also brings Hitler’s art, 14th-century tapestries, and Abu Ghraib into the narrative, and writes in the voice of Bo Jean Harmonica, an alter ego of sorts whose gender is categorized pithily: “I’m a man but there’s a woman in it.” Though there are occasional meandering thematic digressions, these seem a part of the journey. There’s a chapter written as the transcript of a surrealist puppet show, wherein Rosie informs the audience that she has been writing Myles’s material since 1990. The feeling of watching a beloved pet’s decline is rendered bittersweet: “Our present had a pastness to it every day.” There is humor, as the author recalls a fruitless attempt to breed Rosie (“I wondered if I was doing something illegal.
Inspired by Rosie’s death, Myles uses a pastiche approach to explore the bodily, cerebral, and esoteric/religious aspects of the grieving process, all of which is portrayed with meditative poignancy. BuzzFeed's Books Pick of exciting new books you need to read.Poet and novelist Myles ( Inferno) reflects on 16 years with their pit bull Rosie. Moving from an imaginary talk show where Rosie is interviewed by Myles' childhood puppet to a critical reenactment of the night Rosie mated with another pit bull, from lyrical transcriptions of their walks to Rosie's enlightened narration from the afterlife, Afterglow illuminates all that it can mean when we dedicate our existence to a dog.Įlle magazine's pick of best books to read this fall. Through this lens, we witness Myles' experiences with intimacy and spirituality, celebrity and politics, alcoholism and recovery, fathers and family history, as well as the fantastical myths we spin to get to the heart of grief. Starting from the emptiness following Rosie's death, Afterglow launches a heartfelt and fabulist investigation into the true nature of the bond between pet and pet owner. During the course of their 16 years together, Myles was madly devoted to the dog's well-being, especially in her final days. In 1990, Myles chose Rosie from a litter on the street, and their connection instantly became central to the writer's life and work. The Trip, their super-8 puppet road film can be seen on YouTube.
Their books include For Now (an essay/talk about writing), Afterglow (a dog memoir), I Must Be Living Twice: new and selected poems, and Chelsea Girls. This newest book paints a kaleidoscopic portrait of a beloved confidant: the pit bull called Rosie. EILEEN MYLES (they/them) came to New York from Boston in 1974 to be a poet. Prolific and widely renowned, Eileen Myles is a trailblazer whose decades of literary and artistic work "set a bar for openness, frankness, and variability few lives could ever match" ( New York Review of Books).
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