‘The Anthologist’ by Nicholson Baker
It’s nothing against poetry, per se. But for whatever reasons, modern American readers don’t do the poetry thing. Pretty much the last time poetry was big was the 1960s. But this is unfortunate, because poetry has merits. It can be funny, moving, entertaining, thoughtful. And we all know this, by the way, because pop music lyrics generate all of these feelings. We don’t immediately think of pop music as poetry but much of it is.
Which is a long and tortured way of recommending Nicholson Baker’s new novel, "The Anthologist." It’s a novel about a poet, and about poetry, which most of us don’t read much anymore, yet it’s a fun and engrossing read. The main character is Paul Chowder, a semisuccessful poet living in New England. He is past his prime, he hasn’t been published in a while, and he’s not dealing well with things. He’s been asked to compile a poetry anthology and to write an introduction, but he can’t seem to get the job started, let alone done.
His inability to complete the anthology leads to the departure of a live-in girlfriend. This only makes him sadder and less productive. He’s falling apart — a self-described "study in failure."
That’s the slight narrative, but "The Anthologist" is not really about Chowder’s day-to-day issues, it’s about his love of poetry, which he eloquently calls "prose in slow motion." The novel, written in the first person, delivers his passionate perspectives on the history of poetry, especially the battle between rhyme and free verse. Chowder is a die-hard rhyme guy, and he disdains poets such as Ezra Pound who dismissed poems that rhyme as trite and outdated. In essence, much of the novel is Chowder’s ruminations on poetry — the very thoughts he should be incorporating into the introduction to his anthology.
And so, for me at least, "The Anthologist" accomplished something sort of amazing: It made me want to read more poetry, to appreciate the music of verse. By exploring the writing process and offering examples of great lines from great works, "The Anthologist" opens the door to a neglected wing of the literary mansion.
