David Dayton Ordine dei libri

This coming-of-age story follows Calvin Wideman, an ex-evangelical who gradually distanced himself from the church and later embraced the philosophies of Aldous Huxley, Alan Watts, and Timothy Leary during college. When recruited to mediate a family conflict over scripture, Cal finds himself entangled in their intellectual “biblical bickering,” which prompts him to reevaluate his past experiences and relationships. The narrative begins the weekend before Christmas in 1974, as Cal returns to Chicago feeling nostalgic for Mexico, where he had spent his savings after graduating from Northwestern. His friend Josh meets him at the airport, urging him to call his mother about an “urgent family matter.” Upon learning that his sister Rachel has joined a cult, Cal suspects his parents are overreacting but agrees to visit her at the commune in a wealthy suburb. There, he uncovers unsettling truths about the group’s radical reinterpretation of the Greek New Testament. On Christmas Eve, he finds himself defending Rachel’s beliefs to his family, whose strong opposition confounds him as it contradicts their Reformed theology. This family drama forces Cal to confront the trauma of his lost faith while navigating the complex interplay of belief, reason, freedom, and familial ties.

"David Dayton has devised a lucid and serene mysticism of the real. Time and again in these poems he connects self, fellows, Earth, universe, past and present, employing a vigorous imagery, asserting a self of arresting wholeness that thinks, feels and risks knowing." -- Poet and editor Patricia Wilcox, reviewing Dayton's first book of poems, The Lost Body of Childhood. In this second collection, Dayton has arranged 36 poems in four "playlists." The first, "Sorrows in Plain Sight," is a series of image-rich narrative poems about people, including the poet, doing their best to endure hard times with stoic resolve, humorous good will, and sometimes sheer verve. "Ithaca, Town and Country," takes an upbeat turn in poems both lyrical and narrative that celebrate the poet's married life in the countryside near Ithaca, New York. The third playlist, "Fides Poetica," pays homage to revered fellow poets and includes poems to Dayton's parents and a beloved grandmother. Humorous and tender by turns, this sequence concludes with a Christmas meditation written shortly after John Lennon's death and dedicated to him. The final playlist, "There You Are," contains seven poems about Dayton's life in a village on the outskirts of Mexico City where both his children were born. The prevailing mood is gently wry and at times imbued with transcendent gratitude for the pluck, luck, and various loves that sustain him.