A bewildering book of lists, random words, strange observations and beautiful pen and ink renderings of everything from a seal to a naked man to a farmhouse scene.  One review lauds Ashbery’s insouciance and Brainard’s Americana, evidently enjoying the playing off by the drawings.  I found this book at the Nagy Gallery in Manhattan where an exhibit focused on the New York poets and the artists they hung with in the 1960’s-70’s—Jasper Johns, Brainard, Frankenthaler, Fairfield Porter on the one hand with Ashbery, James Schuyler, Frank O’Hara, Kenneth Koch on the other.  Great exhibit but a problematic book.