Reaching back into history to talk with
Plath and other historical figures who have suffered and wrote about their
suffering, Read tries to make sense of what it's like to be alive and suffering
now. These deeply felt poems include language from Plath's The Bell
Jar and poems about Marguerite Duras and Simone de Beauvoir, along with other
strange bedfellows from pop culture who make appearances, among them Kenny
Rogers, Dr. Seuss, Kurt Cobain, and Courtney Love.