Chanteuse (Heretical Texts)

By Catherine Daly

Subjects: French Resistance, War in Iraq

Description: Chanteuse / Cantatrice is a book about collaboration and complicity. Chanteuse starts with the surreal singer or radio operator giving voice to whose message, why, and ends with the absurd message of war and peace we hear, perpetuating it. "Ni de votre guerre, ni de votre paix." Cantatrice begins with the all-but-impossible task of extracting meaning from codes and ruins only to end without emotional truth. "is not / My heart". The book can be read with the spine on the left, from the top of the page down, Chanteuse, or with the spine on the right, from the bottom of the page up, Cantatrice. Each poem begins at a title, and moves toward 'the other side'.