{"product_id":"ecstasy-11","title":"Ecstasy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'\u003ci\u003eEcstasy\u003c\/i\u003e stands out for its brutal examination of the transience of Eros ... Campy and fun' \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eEcstasy\u003c\/i\u003e, Alex Dimitrov embraces a life on the edge in New York and the finely wrought poetry that can come out of it.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe explores sex, drugs, parties, pleasure, and God in the 2020s, and looks back to a coming-of-age in the 1990s that still informs who his generation is and will be. His unabashed and drivingly musical poems are a call against repression, a rebuke of cultural norms and shame, and a celebration of human authenticity – even if to live under such philosophies is dangerous.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn ‘Today I Love Being Alive’, we find the poet naked in his kitchen, eating a banana and obsessed with a new lover, declaring ‘I don't care about being remembered. \/ I care about . . . Strong men. Beautiful sentences. Italian leather’; in ‘Poppers’, he stands lightheaded in the bathroom at a bar, ‘thinking of what to do \/ with the rest of my life’, and issuing a warning to himself and us: ‘Poetry \/ is not a self-help book.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDimitrov is an iconographer of contemporary life, able to pin profound and timeless meaning to a fleeting encounter in the street. \u003ci\u003eEcstasy \u003c\/i\u003ealso engages with the poet’s Christian upbringing, interrogating faith as both an enemy and valve of catharsis, and a bedfellow of what this book celebrates and courts: profound human ecstasy.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'A rollicking paean to pleasure, an ode to realness and resilience ... Raw and honest and deeply personal' \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'Dimitrov is that rarest of creatures, a true poet and a truly contemporary poet. Thank god he's here' Michael Cunningham, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Hours\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e*A most anticipated queer book for Spring 2025 in\u003ci\u003e Electric Literature*\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Vintage Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":54254514569560,"sku":"9781787335332","price":19.99,"currency_code":"EUR","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/1295\/4195\/files\/9781787335332_938223ef-92ec-436c-a615-a1e111f9f02b.jpg?v=1777188650","url":"https:\/\/agendabookshop.com\/products\/ecstasy-11","provider":"Agenda Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}