GAUDY SORROW

<p>Barbara Seyda's GAUDY SORROW is a surreal epistolary memoir about her Basque friend who died of Covid on Christmas Eve. A rant elegy swerving like a euphoric requiem over 200 short blunt letters catapult us into an epic odyssey. Rowdy and transcendent we zig zag through tightly-braided random moments street slang Shakespeare Spanglish and over-wrought metaphors. This queer Covid narrative spews sexy rage and body parts like a swamp monster of grief - a hydra sprouting infinite heads from fresh wounds for the beloved. A female-centric opera and hybrid text GAUDY SORROW flickers like a dead lightbulb dazzling and bereft.</p>