What We’re Reading: Spiral Bound and Sleeping With Nikki

The first time I saw members of Doomtree perform was at a free show in what I believe was a cafeteria at Augsburg College in Minneapolis. I was a freshman in high school and just testing the waters of hip hop. The show featured Dessa and Cecil Otter opening for Eyedea who was, at the time, performing with the group who eventually became Face Candy. I was hooked. This hip hop thing was impressive. By 2008 I had fully accepted hip hop into my life, and my love for Doomtree was growing with every new release. That’s when Dessa published Spiral Bound, her debut collection of prose and poems and my appreciation for Dessa’s artistry took on a whole new dimension.

Spiral Bound is a fascinating look into the process of an artist trying to figure out the world around her. The most successful pieces in the collection are the personal essays like “Camera Obscura” and “The Leviathan.” Dessa has a knack for dropping little pieces of information that seem unimportant, but ultimately inform the outcome of the story. A comment about Gary, Indiana, for example, becomes the final, climactic image of a story.

Often, the pieces are written in short stanza-like bursts that spiral in, if you will, on what Dessa is actually trying to say. “Saint Maxwell” begins in such a way:

When my little brother Max was born, the priest refused to baptize him. Tapping the Jerusalem Bible, he told my parents: “You must select another name. There is no Saint Maxwell.” My dad, with his only son in his arms and his only tie around his neck, responded, “If we don’t name any boys Max, how are we going to get one?”

The story, a short, but strong piece, goes on to describe defining moments in Dessa’s childhood that give us a sense of what her little brother means to her, and how his unique worldview have shaped Dessa’s outlook.

Considering Dessa is most well known for her lyrics, it’s surprising that the poems in Spiral Bound are the weakest pieces. In song, it’s easier to forgive a flood of adverbs, but on the page, the tricks that make lyrics work can slow the poem down. In particular, “The Jacket Dove” feels like pieces of a song that didn’t make the album, and the personification of nostalgia in the poem “Nostalgia” feels too heavy handed, though is a novel idea. The wry humor keeps the poem afloat making the poem worth reading. Ultimately, the poems are fascinating and satisfying despite not being as finely crafted as her prose.

Recently, Dessa released a new piece of fiction to the first 1,500 people who ordered her new album, Castor, The Twin. The story, “Sleeping With Nikki,” is an extension of the themes in Spiral Bound, but it’s clear Dessa has become much more deft at crafting a story in the three years since then. My only caveat is that Dessa seems much more interested in a theme or an idea than in creating fully fleshed out characters. This doesn’t always hurt a story however, especially since the ideas are fascinating and the prose tightly crafted.

Dessa mentioned to Hazel & Wren that she’s working on a new collection of prose. It could be some time before any more new work is published, however, so pick up Spiral Bound to tide you over. The stories are cerebral, witty, sad, and always satisfying. You can find the book at Common Good Books, Magers & Quinn Booksellers, and at any Dessa show.