{"product_id":"godlike-9798896230106","title":"Godlike","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn outrageous spectacle of love between two untamed poets, a 27-year old man and a teenage boy, written by one of America's original punks and finest writers. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBased on Arthur Rimbaud and Paul Verlaine's notorious affair, but set in the epochal downtown poetry scene of filthy 1970s New York, \u003ci\u003eGodlike\u003c\/i\u003e is a tribute to poetry and the beauty and mess of art, desire, and New York City. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eNew York poet Paul Vaughn has a trick for enjoying poetry readings: He simply imagines the reader died a long time ago. Paul is twenty-seven, married, and an admired poet himself. R. T. Wode's mission is to give offense. He's also a poet, freshly landed in the city, and, at age sixteen, unknown. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003ePaul worships T. They embark on a tempestuous affair, dropping acid and crashing parties and perambulating the grit and grime of New York City circa 1972. Paul is in love with T., but T. is in love with experience. Their relationship disintegrates. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA novel of compelling originality and transcendent beauty by legendary musician and poet Richard Hell, \u003ci\u003eGodlike\u003c\/i\u003e transposes the notorious romance of Paul Verlaine and Arthur Rimbaud to the East Village in its squalid, glorious '70s heyday. The book comprises a version of Paul's 1997 hospital notebooks: diaries amidst poems and essays, along with, most pertinently, the poet's third-person memoir-novelette of his youthful time with the now-famous T. \u003ci\u003eGodlike\u003c\/i\u003e is infused as well with evocations--and sometimes actual poems--of many New York poets of the era, from Ted Berrigan and Ron Padgett to Edwin Denby and James Schuyler. It achieves a lyricism both profane and profound as it conjures the frenetic vitality as well as the existential malaise of an era. It's a searching meditation on art, life, love, and the impossibility of everything.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eRichard Hell\u003c\/b\u003e first came to public attention in the mid 1970s as an originator of punk. His music albums include \u003ci\u003eBlank Generation\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eDestiny Street\u003c\/i\u003e. In 1984 he retired from music and resumed his original ambition, which was to write books. He is the author of numerous such works of fiction, poetry, essays, notebooks, and autobiography, including \u003ci\u003eThe Voidoid\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eAcross the Years\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eArtifact\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGo Now\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHot and Cold\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eI Dreamed I Was a Very Clean Tramp\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMassive Pissed Love\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eWhat Just Happened\u003c\/i\u003e. He's also co-author of several collaborative books, including, with songwriter and musician Tom Verlaine, the collection of poems \u003ci\u003eWanna Go Out?\u003c\/i\u003e (published under the heteronym Theresa Stern), and with the artist Christopher Wool the book of image-texts \u003ci\u003ePsychopts\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eRaymond Foye\u003c\/b\u003e is an independent curator, editor, publisher, and writer. In 2020, he received the American Book Award for editing the \u003ci\u003eCollected Poems of Bob Kaufman\u003c\/i\u003e. He is a regular contributor to the \u003ci\u003eGagosian Quarterly\u003c\/i\u003e and a consulting editor with \u003ci\u003eThe Brooklyn Rail\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in New York City.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"New York Review of Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52000309903634,"sku":"9798896230106","price":11.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_6364488d-c24f-4b08-9dfb-9dced08f0b53.jpg?v=1770194560","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/godlike-9798896230106","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}