Actual Air

By David Berman

Book Overview

David Berman reinvents the overlooked and seemingly ordinary details of everyday life--from the suitcase of a departing girlfriend to a baseboard electrical outlet. His poems chart a course through his own highly original American dreamscape in language that is fresh, accessible, and remarkably precise. This debut collection has received extraordinary acclaim from readers and reviewers alike and is quickly becoming a cult classic. As Pulitzer Prize-winning poet James Tate said, "These poems are beautiful, strange, intelligent, and funny. . . . It's a book for everyone."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1890447048
• ISBN13: 9781890447045
• Release Date: July 1999
• Publisher: Open City Books
• Length: 106 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Actual Air made me taller and more handsome!

Saint David the prolific is once again saving our souls. The book carries an honesty and clarity rare in modern poetry, or modern life for that matter. The works here harken back to a time earlier this evening, as you sat at the table, staring at your glass of milk and wondering why your older brother never calls you. It's a simple choice for you, read it now or spend hours agonizing about the time you wasted without these words in your heart. When your heart swells you will understand. May the Silver Jew ride off into the sunset, in a chevy nova listening to steppenwolf. Berman, I salute you.

david berman's first book leaves a powerfull impression.

bermans poems are delightfull, his wit is alive and relevant. he takes apart the regular inbetween moments we take for granted and lets us appreciate them. never before have a read another persons work and left it so sure that i knew what he had to say, as if his voice was an older, sharper version of our own. to ignore this book of poems is to close your ears to a powerfull voice of the american experiance.

As good as a Jews album, which is a good thing....

I bought this because I love the Silver Jews and Berman's words are probably the best part of their music. Like his lyrics, this is brilliant, thought-provoking, and clever... not pretensious at all in my opinion (see guy below). The best description that keeps popping into my head is "full of revelations".. maybe *that* is pretensious but that's what i think. My favorite "revelation" (or "pretensious" moment, if you think): "As a way of getting in touch with my origins / every night I set the alarm clock / for the time I was born, so that waking up / becomes a historical reenactment". Simply a very enjoyable, funny read all the way through. If you like the Joos, get this. If you like this, get some Silver Jews. If you don't know either...try one!

the Botany 500 of Charlottesville-inspired whimsy-rock

There remains some question regarding my thorough completion of the tome, but none about the clarity of Mr. DC Berman's mystical vision, to wit: give a man a suit, he'll dress for a day, but give him a Botany 500 and he'll found Microsoft. Or something.

chips ahoy! this is one exciting book of poetry

david berman's interrogation of the nostalgic is well - it's great because it makes me think of the old arrested frontier - i'm a cowboy. youre a cowboy. this is actual, not virtual.this has to do with his capacity to hypostatize the corporeal in a reluctance to get hung up over cookie factories or sliding scale payment plans. the result? it makes you believe in me and me in you. that intersubjectivity that lies at the base of every american community is HERE, actual air - i salute people constantly.