Bricuth, John (pen name of John T. Irwin for poetry)

Pure Products of America, Inc.: A Narrative Poem - Johns Hopkins: Poetry and Fiction Bricuth, John (pen name of John T. Irwin for poetry)

Commendation Quotes: The outrageous John Bricuth has surpassed himself in this sublimely mad narrative poem about our ongoing America. There is no one quite like Bricuth. He tries to play all the notes at once and frequently succeeds. Wickedness, supernal wit, eloquence always just off the beat, and a fierce verve animate this unsettling leap into our deepening abyss. To read this poem is to imbibe a tonic for these darkening times. Commendation Quotes: In his hugely enjoyable new verse novel, John Bricuth recounts the rise and fall of Big Bubba, preacher, faith healer, and entrepreneur, 'the Donald Trump of holy rollers, ' whose long-kept secret has torn his family apart. It's a captivating story, a real page-turner, poignant yet often hilarious, told in high-energy language by a master poet. Commendation Quotes: In "Pure Products of America, Inc.", all the old calamities stand ready to repeat, with echoes ranging from Circe to the Prodigal, Eli's sons to Cain and Able to Jacob and Esau, plus there's a little incest added just for motive. Before and after the broad vowels and tired cliches of Bubba-the-Texas-evangelist (whose healing miracles are tricks of frenzy), there is the family struggle for paternal favor and birthright to the family business, Pure Products. On stage the commodification of faith works wonders, while backstage the money changers never stop counting. The book is a raucous unraveling of false pieties delivered with tent revival pace plus the broadcast riffs of Charlie Printwhistle's W-A-K-O. Biographical Note: John Bricuth is the pen name of John T. Irwin, author of "Let Me Just Say This About That" and "As Long As It's Big." He is the Decker Professor in the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University. Commendation Quotes: Readers of John Bricuth's earlier works ( "Just Let Me Say This About That" and "As Long As It's Big") will know exactly what to expect from "Pure Products of America, Inc." the unexpected. A partial culmination of those earlier poems both technically and thematically, "Pure Products" is at once a dazzling investigation of language and meaning as well as a further exploration of Bricuthian themes-- Faith versus Doubt, Sincerity versus The Big Con--all set in a familial context of love and betrayal. Commendation Quotes: In his hugely enjoyable verse novel, John Bricuth recounts the rise and fall of Big Bubba, preacher, faith healer, and entrepreneur, 'the Donald Trump of holy rollers, ' whose long-kept secret has torn his family apart. It's a captivating story, a real page-turner, poignant yet often hilarious, told in high-energy language by a master poet.

Contributor Bio:  Bricuth, John John Bricuth is the pen name of John T. Irwin, former editor of the Georgia Review and author of numerous works of literary criticism and poetry, including Just Let Me Say This About That, the inaugural volume in the Sewanee Writers' Series from the Overlook Press. He is the Decker Professor in the Humanities and former chair of the Writing Seminars at the Johns Hopkins University. In 2005 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His books include American Hieroglyphics, The Mystery to a Solution, and Doubling and Incest / Repetition and Revenge.