In <i>Solar Perplexus</i>, Dean Young uses the surreal as the thread which weaves in and out of complications of existence. The result is a textured, honest work that grapples with what it means to love, lose, and hang in the afterward. Suddenly the boundaries of our everyday are shaken—and yet instead of being thrown off balance, our understanding is cracked open. Young holds us between un/reality, tracing the circle of life and death, and exposing the true closeness between...
Young was very close to dying and received a heart transplant just after Fall Higher was published in hardcover late in 2010. His father died at 49 due to problems with his heart. NPR's «Morning Edition» did a beautiful story about Dean and his heart transplant, where he said, «I think that's one of the jobs of poets: They stare at their own death and through it they still see the world – the world of 10,000 things. Poetry is about time running out.» (This radio article, «The Heart of...
"Dean Young challenges the reader to hang on as he jigs from one poetic style to another and sets a wondrous course across a Duchampian landscape."— Chicago Tribune "In Young's work, the big essential questions—mortality, identity, the meaning of life—aren't simply food for thought; they're grounds for entertainment."— The Sunday Star (Toronto)Dean Young escorts his transplanted heart into invigorating poetic territory that...
