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Love, An Index
99 pages
A fierce, soulful exploration of love and sudden loss told through musically elaborate and deeply personal verse.
What it feels like
Reading this collection feels like sifting through the beautiful, fragmented memories of a passionate life suddenly interrupted by tragedy. The pace is meandering and reflective, guided by a billowing verse style that shifts effortlessly between plainspoken narrative and musically elaborate lyricism. The mood is deeply haunted and mournful, yet it bursts with the soulful joys of world travel and shared artistic connection. It is an emotionally raw experience that traces the arc from profound love to the scarred reality of grief. This book will deeply resonate with readers who seek fierce, intimate poetry that lays bare the complexities of mourning, memory, and the enduring weight of a tragic loss.
- Mood
- haunted
- mournful
- reflective
- intimate
- Tone
- passionate
- plainspoken
- soulful
- fierce
- Pace
- meandering
- Themes
- grief and mourning · passionate love · memory and loss · world travel
- The writing
- A billowing, musically elaborate yet plainspoken verse style that blends lyricism with narrative memory.
- The arc
- Moves from the passionate joys of a shared life and world travel into the haunting, scarred reality of sudden loss and mourning.
- Who it's for
- Readers who appreciate soulful, deeply personal poetry that wrestles with profound grief and the enduring nature of love.
Content notes
- grief
- death of a partner
- missing persons
About the book
"A man disappears. The woman who loves him is left scarred and haunted. In her fierce debut, Rebecca Lindenberg tells the story—in verse—of her passionate relationship with Craig Arnold, a much-respected poet who disappeared in 2009 while hiking a volcano in Japan. Lindenberg's billowing, "I contain multitudes" style lays bare the poet's sadnesses, joys, and longings in poems that are lyric and narrative, plainspoken and musically elaborate. Regarding her role in Arnold's story, Lindenberg writes: "The girl with the ink-stained teeth / knows she's famous / in a tiny, tragic way. / She's not / daft, after all." Then later, of her travels in Italy with the poet: "The carabinieri / wanted to know if there were bears / in our part of America. Yes, we said, / many bears. Man-eating bears? Yes, of course, / many man-eating bears." Every poem in this collection bursts with a unique, soulful voice."
Description from Open Library.
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