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Ecstasy: Poems by Alex Dimitrov
5.0
funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Major thanks to Knopf for sending me an ARC of this in exchange for my honest thoughts:

β€œπ˜žπ˜©π˜’π˜΅ 𝘱𝘒𝘳𝘡 𝘰𝘧 𝘭π˜ͺ𝘧𝘦 𝘩𝘒𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘡 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘴π˜ͺ𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘡𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘢?”

To be gay and bored and unsure of the world. What should life provide? What do I provide to life? Is God real through any of this? My Catholic upbringing says otherwise, but Dimitrov’s trust in the divine in that Lana Del Rey cool brings him to Frank O’Hara cool, a beatnik chic that once was, revived. Corvettes, Coca Colas, having a coke with you, can it be done?

The book is filled with boys and kisses and booze and charm. Dimitrov writes of a world where bumming off a cigarette from a cute face is life’s greatest pleasure, and pure ecstasy when you go home with them.