The Rumpus Poetry Book Club looks at "Goodbye F**cker"

That's Carmen Giménez Smith's “Goodbye, Flicker." And it's the talk of the Rumpus Poetry Book Club this week. Brian Spears starts off the conversation describing how the book piqued his interested, from a wonderful misreading of the title:

Brian S: So I have a quick story about how I chose this book, and then we can get to the questions. Carmen sent me this manuscript months ago, and it sat next to my desk for a long time until one night I had the house to myself. And I picked it up, sat at the dining room table, and looked at the title, but instead of “Goodbye, Flicker” I saw “Goodbye, Fucker,” because the title was all in caps and the LI looked like a U to my bad eyes.

And then I read the whole thing in one sitting.

And I decided about 3/4 of the way through that I wanted to do it for the book club, even if the title wasn’t “Goodbye, Fucker.” Because I get a bit of that attitude in the book anyway. Okay, a lot of that attitude.

Carmen: I thought it might get misread that way. I’m glad the misreading served the book!

Hahaha, very nice. Jump over to check out the group's take on fairy tales, DJs, channel surfing, and much much more. You should also check out Giménez Smith's great Noemi Press if you haven't already.