On the Level

On the Level: Poems on Living with Multiple Sclerosis cuts to the reality of living with disability. Fear and courage-and humor-make their appearance, along with family trauma, invasive examinations, constantly moving medical targets, and accessibility barriers. Without pulling any punches, Bryan R. Monte shows us that life and joy push through and beyond limitations both self- and other-imposed.

PRAISE

Gifted narrative poet Bryan R. Monte turns medical anthropologist in this transfixing exploration of his four-decade brawl with multiple sclerosis, meeting his disease's "tongues of fire" with wit, erudition and insight. On the Level is not only a deft exploration of the author's life as patient, but also a daring foray into the nature of illness, the limits of the medical profession and the boundless potential of the human psyche to transcend its physical shell. In the spirit of Sarah Manguso and Porochista Khakpour, Monte transforms his own body into a literary landscape. An arresting debut. - Jacob M. Appel, MD and author of Who Says You're Dead?

The extraordinary thing about this collection is its positivity. Not in a facile sense-these poems are unsparingly real, bringing readers as close as I dare imagine to the experience of MS in their own bodies as well as in the mind. But the grace of the writing, its tenderness and often humor, lifts us, as does its determination to look through sometimes harrowing details to wider perspectives, ones we can all use, simply being human, moving outwards and on. - Philip Gross, Between the Islands and The Water Table (T.S. Eliot Prize)