The Holy Spirit of Life: Essays Written for John Ashcroft's Secret Self

By Joe Wenderoth

The bold and surprising imagination of Joe Wenderoth is everywhere present in these essays moving fluidly between aesthetics, obscenity, America, censorship, and the craft of poetry. Fans of his previous work know he is one of those rare figures who travels between pop culture, poetry, and cultural critique, and all will be thrilled to find his uncompromising and inimitable sensibility on brilliant display. Joe Wenderoth grew up near Baltimore. His books include the novel Letters To Wendy's (Verse Press, 2000) and the poetry collections It Is If I Speak and Disfortune (Wesleyan, 2000, 1995). Agony: A Proposal is forthcoming from Verse Press. He teaches at the University of California Davis, where he lives with his wife and daughter.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0974635375
• ISBN13: 9780974635378
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: Wave Books
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.9" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Da Vinci Code This!

Joe Wenderoth's The Holy Spirit of Life is truly reinventing/reinvigorating satire. For all his quirks and sexual "'perversions," Wenderoth is one of our most political and moral writers! Because of his tone, he can take on issues that most other writers would either sound shrill or snivel-y tackling. The Da Vinci Code has nothing on The Holy Spirit of Life. Wenderoth's Jesus didn't marry Mary--he was already a woman who has an orgy with the disciples. This controversial essay and the letters from an editor who ultimately could not convince publishers of a magazine to print the essay are worth the price of this book. Wenderoth discusses issues of censorship and silence intelligently in these essays and poems.