Chicago

As previously noted, Chicago is the center toward which Borzutsky's globe-hopping apocalyptic vision gravitates. Before the poem "Memories of My Overdevelopment," Chicago is just one of many place names conjured by the speaker's schizophrenic, whirling persona. In "Memories," however, Borzutsky slows down the action and sets his critique of the nation state in Chicago, detailing a wrenching scene in which the narrator, now a relatively stable dramatic presence, suffers multiple abuses at the hands of the Chicago P.D.

The Mountain

If we take the speaker at face value when he says that "This mountain appears in every book I have ever written. / Sorry if you were expecting something new." ("The Mountain at the End of This Book," 83), we may conclude that "The Mountain" figures as the setting for the entire book. Like the setting of the "Private World" discussed below, "The Mountain" is, properly speaking, a condition...