Description
Book SynopsisThis sprawling collection comprises a series of interviews with denizens of the shifting city, each mediated through the lonely lens of the Detective, a character whose refractive investigation atomizes the scene.
Trade Review“You’ll likely find Thea Brown’s collection
Loner Forensics shelved under poetry, but this book is something all its own: lyric noir, speculative elegy, private procedural. A story told through story’s negation ('The city is not a story'), here we feel we might glimpse SchrÖdinger’s cat gone stray, living out one of its lives off alley scraps in the intimate estrangement of the metropolis. While the chorus of voices builds a litany of delightfully dubious testimony out of postmodern materials—fragments of the attention economy, consumer culture, and so on—
place (as in any good Gothic) is a crucial character as well: dangerous, endangered, and indelible. Alongside Brown and her Detective, we search for truth in the trappings, asking the big questions, like, well, 'What was the question?'” —Dora Malech, author of
FlourishTable of ContentsHEAD SOUTH, CATAFALQUE 6
THE ANNOTATOR 14
THE FORENSICS TEAM 15
THE MAYOR 16
THE PALM READER 18
THE AMATEURS 19
THE CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGIST, PART 1 20
THE CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGIST, PART 2 21
THE CURATOR 22
THE WEATHER 24
THE REGISTER 25
THE LUXURY CONSULTANT 26
THE FORENSICS TEAM 28
THE MUNICIPAL LANDSCAPER 29
THE FRAMER 31
THE INTERNIST 32
THE RIDER 33
THE CONCIERGE 34
THE CORRESPONDENT 35
THE RADIO PRODUCER 36
THE FLORIST 37
THE DIPLOMAT 38
THE JOURNALIST 39
THE FORENSICS TEAM 41
THE TWINS 42
THE STENOGRAPHER 44
THE INGENUE 45
THE CENTAUR 47
THE COLLECTOR 48
THE COPY EDITOR 49
THE RUNNER 50
THE ACTUARY 51
THE DANCER 52
THE MAKEUP COUNTER 53
THE BLOGGER 54
THE TALKING HEADS 55
THE HOUSEKEEPER 56
THE ADJUNCT 57
THE FORENSICS TEAM 59
THE PROVOST 60
THE DREAMBOAT 61
THE TELLER 63
THE SHOPPER 65
THE TEMP 66
THE TOUR GUIDE 67
THE NEOTRANSCENDENTALIST 68
THE FORENSICS TEAM 69
THE DESIGNER 70
THE NOSTALGIST 71
THE COPS 73
THE IMPALEMENT ARTIST 74
THE TRANSPLANT 75
THE POLLSTER 76
THE FORENSICS TEAM 78
THE INDUSTRIAL ARCHITECT 79
THE NARC 80
THE THIRD SHIFT 81
THE CARTOGRAPHER 83
THE BACKPACKER 84
THE FORENSICS TEAM 85
THE GROUNDSKEEPER 86
THE OPENING ACT 87
THE VISITOR IN THE HILLS 88
THE CRONE 89
THE MISANTHROPE 92
THE RINGMASTER 94
THE GARDENER 96
THE FORENSICS TEAM 97
THE DETECTIVE 98
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 101
