Music Like Dirt

Rating:
Summary: Thrilling to the last drop
Review: I wish Bidart were more prolific, but on the bright side, each rare collection is an irresistible distillation of some thought-elixir. "Music Like Dirt" treats how humans are essentially art-making, art-sharing creatures. Since this is Bidart, we get both the good and evil consequences of this impulse - the grotesques along with the geniuses - in language that is simple, clear, but also finely wrought and deeply emotional.

Note that this is a chapbook, so even though it's beautifully printed it still has something of a flimsy feeling... It's perfectly sized and shaped to be a little gift to the favorite creative or artistic person in your life.

The real standouts in the collection, "For the Twentieth Century," "Advice to the Players," and "Lament for the Makers," are all available online, albeit coarsened by lousy layout and banner ads. Don't just read them quickly at your desk; print them out and read them somewhere peaceful in solitude, and you will probably end up wanting to buy the book anyway, they're that good.