The Stuntman: Poems [Paperback]

THE EARTH BROKE OPEN CAUSE WE BROKE IT OPEN, blares the first line of this enrapturing debut collection mapping the myth of Narcissus and Echo and the Iron Range roots of Bob Dylan onto a world growing increasingly self-obsessed. Against the backdrop of the mining town of Hibbing, Minnesota, Brian Laidlaw examines the ways narcissism has flooded culture. Much like a “hawk has a horizontal sweet spot on its retina / for spotting prey on the prairie,” the speaker of these poems “has a narcissus / shaped sweet spot / all the better to spot himself.”

The volume comes combined with a brand new LP from Laidlaw produced by Brett Bullion, co-arranged by Hibbing native Danny Vitali, and featuring members of The Pines and Halloween, Alaska. Expanding on the themes addressed inNarcissus the Stuntman, the album provides listeners an innovative multimedia experience.

Reveals Laidlaw’s unique talent in deadpan, witty poems that flash with plangent images and macabre moments. —Star Tribune

“In this gorgeous debut, Laidlaw takes what’s common and small and stronger than it knows and bids it sing.
—Chris Martin, author ofAmerican Music

The Stuntmanis a dazzling first book: an all-night thrill revival, a jamboree of ecstatic yawps.”
—Alex Lemon, author ofThe Wish BookandHappy: A Memoir

These poems punch a hole right through the wall separating me from magic, leaping back and forth as if the wall were a fire—between the quotidian and the ecstatic, between a commons and a summons, breaking down antagonymic barriers so the sun shines through.” —Eleni Sikelianos, author ofThe California Poem