“It was the year us girls had a feminine desire to go missing,” Vanessa Roveto, acclaimed author ofbodys, begins her book within the remnants of a car crash, fragmenting identity, grief, and heart.
Beginning with the death of daddy, the “I” soon meshes with whatever and whomever she comes into contact with—strangers, actors, a Covid crush. She absorbs these people and objects, dispersing them into the Southern California landscape, the Uncanny Valley, warping time and naturalizing dreams.
Documenting a period of both global and personal loss, Roveto crafts a book-length poem that weighs heavier than the Ego in L.A. Splintering Self between Other and palm trees in the summer heat,Mulholland Divespins a Lynchian setting within a feminine eruption of alluring language, fluked romance, and the aftershocks of grief.
USVanessa Roveto is the author of two books of poetry,
bodysand
a women, and the novella The
Valley (a void). She is the recipient of a MacDowell Fellowship. She lives in Los Angeles.
"I read this hypnotic poetry book in one sitting. At first, it hurt my feelings because I thought the narcissistic love interest was me. Then I realized it’s poetry and abstract and the character was many people and things. Or maybe it was all me and none of it was me, and either way it didn’t matter because the best books should hurt the writer’s lover’s feelings. So I wiped my tears and finished the book and realized it was absolutely perfect in every way, much like Vanessa Roveto herself."—Anna Dorn, author ofPerfume & Pain
"Vanessa Roveto'sMulholland Diveis the newest entry into louche, brash, riveting Los Angeles poetry. '...a shopping list is a suicide note i’m performing.' Car crashes, smut, lesbian pillow talk...this isn't your grandma's poetry, but if it was, the world would be a better place. I am rlS1
![Mulholland Dive [Paperback]](/itemImage/2/4/3/2/2_7234033.jpg "Mulholland Dive [Paperback]")