Applause

Applause Synopsis

National Book Award finalist Carol Muske-Dukes explores joy, dread, and the solitary communion of applauseApplauseprovides twenty vivid and evocative poems by Carol Muske-Dukes. In ';Dream,' she seeks the past in reverie, along with bicoastal riffs on New York City and Los Angeles. ';The Eulogy' paints the scene of a funeral in sunny California where a young man who has died of AIDS is laid to rest.

In the title poem, a twelve-part journey through the ritual of applause, Muske-Dukes examines the power of a gestureclappingto transform oneself from individual to communal. ';What a strange phenomenon,' she says, ';to be single and plural at once, to feel joy and dread simultaneously, to wish to acknowledge publicly one's anonymity.'