Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (April 4, 1996)
Language: English
Paperback: 416 pages
ISBN-13: 978-03575703805
5 Stars
I knew Carver as a writer of short stories and somewhat excited when I heard he was a poet. My friend suggested I get this book, a good choice.
Carver knew no boundaries in his poetry. If he made a poor choice, he admitted it, he wrote of the beauty he saw and the pain he lived. He was honest in his poetry and accessible by anyone. Don’t think you like poetry? Try these poems, they’re like mini memoir, mini stories.
He begins with Drinking While Driving, “It’s August and I have not / read a book in six months / except something called The Retreat From Moscow /…” His second poem, Luck, explains a lot, “I was nine years old. / I had been around liquor / all my life. My friends / drank too, but they could handle it.”
The last poem, before the Appendixes (which you’ll want to read, too) is Late Fragment, “And did you get what / you wanted from this life, even so? / I did. / And what did you want? / To call myself beloved, to feel myself / beloved on the earth.” Is there a better poem to end the book? To end his life?
There are something like 300 poems in this book, will you like them all? Probably not, but the ones you will like, and you will like some, will speak to you as no other poem possibly could. This is a book every reader needs.
No comments:
Post a Comment