The Cynic in Extremis

<p>Eclectic characters in everyday scenarios populate Jacob M. Appel’s <em>The Cynic in Extremis.</em> We attend a sister’s second wedding with a “hand-me-down groom”; trick-or-treat with a young son; encounter a former teacher long retired still critical; relive difficult ancestral memories of the Holocaust. These poems present—often unapologetically—uncomfortable truths gleaned from close examination of social norms and conventions mostly taken for granted. Full of fun wit and insight <em>The Cynic in Extremis</em> is a finalist for the 2017 Able Muse Book Award.</p><p><strong>PRAISE FOR <em>THE CYNIC IN EXTREMIS:</em></strong></p><p>The narrative poems in Jacob M. Appel’s <em>The Cynic in Extremis</em> cast a cold eye on present and past personal and political. But like the cynics in their classical conception the poet’s subtext here is hope at least love and living without illusion in the extremis of the quotidian. These are mordantly moving even entertaining poems always thoughtful and frequently elegiac.<br />—Dan O’Brien author of <em>War Reporter</em></p><p>Like his stories—approachable insightful and touched with a tinge of sadness for what was and indeed is—Appel’s poems speak in straightforward plain language to raise the curtain on the intimacies of his world. New York City with its pigeon lady the palsied pharmacist Luigi the barber beak-nosed Molly Seward’s father and oh yes the many girls who “left me breathless” and alone. You can almost hear their footsteps walking the cement pavement. Although good-humored and delightfully smart-alecky the collection has a dark undercurrent for it is Holocaust-haunted as he is as we all are who escaped the horror but are doomed to remember and bear witness.<br />—Alice Friman author of <em>The View from Saturn</em></p><p>From this masterful collection arises the sense that with the end so woefully unpredictable and fate so fickle-hearted to waste any moment amounts to a sin. Quirky characters often full of longing and regret pepper Appel’s work like the uncle so cynical he “steered clear of con games like synagogue/ And life insurance” and his compassionate opposite the pigeon-feeding environment-destroying Mrs. Z. These characters seem to fail to leave a mark on the world beyond the poet’s eye.<br />—Brigit Young (from the foreword) author of <em>Worth a Thousand Words</em></p><p>Both beautifully written and lively the poems in <em>The Cynic in Extremis</em> embrace the world with warmth and wit. The portraits of family members and friends workers and teachers neighbors and a first love some set in a time long gone are wonderfully free of nostalgia and sentimentality. Human virtue vice and folly all have a welcome place because there’s a tone of understanding forgiveness and humor that pervades this book and makes it a joy to read.<br />—John Skoyles author of <em>Suddenly It’s Evening</em> and poetry editor at <em>Ploughshares</em></p><p><strong>ABOUT THE AUTHOR:</strong></p><p>Jacob M. Appel is a physician attorney and bioethicist based in New York City. He is the author of seven collections of short fiction five novels and a collection of essays. His short stories have been published in more than two hundred journals and have been short-listed for the O. Henry Award <em>Best American Short Stories Best American Mystery Stories Best American Nonrequired Reading</em> and the <em>Pushcart Prize</em> anthology. His commentary on law medicine and ethics has appeared in the <em>New York Times New York Post New York Daily News Chicago Tribune San Francisco Chronicle Detroit Free Press</em> and other major newspapers. He taught for years at Brown University and currently teaches at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine.</p>