Bombing the Thinker by Darren C. Damage

This book is really about the bombing of the Rodin statue The Thinker in Ohio. Over and over again from various speakers and angles and times. This book is obsessive, and like well-done obsessive writing, builds weight as it circles its subject. A better review of this book can be found at FlyPaperMag, written by my friend Julia Beach Anderson, who recommended the book to me. Read that review, then read the book, then obsess about a broken statue. Buy here.

From “Almost Free”

& that second before / the fire shoved // him backwards / with both hands, / must have felt //like he was almost / alive, like he was / more than Rodin.

“Transfixed in Midparoxysm”

I just thought / that his body / looked more active // after the bombing / & apparently / I was right, // I was right / & apparently / that was cruelty.