YOU, TOO, COULD WRITE A POEM

Name: YOU, TOO, COULD WRITE A POEM
Author: David Orr
ISBN: 978-0-14-312819-9

by David Orr ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 7, 2017

Orr says the greatest compliment for any critic “is to say that you found yourself thinking of his writing the next time you...

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Fresh, vigorous, spirited views on poets and their work.

Award-winning New York Times poetry columnist Orr (The Road Not Taken: Finding America in the Poem Everyone Loves and Almost Everyone Gets Wrong, 2016, etc.) gathers 45 essays and reviews that amply demonstrate his irreverent wit and shrewd insights about poets, poems, and poetry readers, “all five of them.” “I don’t like poetry,” he announces at the start, nor does he like poetry criticism, “unless it’s written by someone who cares about criticism almost as much as he cares about poetry.” Certainly, Orr cares about conveying his views in pithy, often elegant prose and—perhaps bringing to bear his training as a lawyer—defending those views with exacting analyses. Despite his obvious erudition, the author is never a snob. Reflecting on the Best American Poetry series, he concedes that the series promotes the “appealingly democratic” idea of poetry “as a community activity. ‘People are writing poems!’ each volume cries. ‘You, too, could write a poem!’ ” But Orr, who celebrates the “virtuosity” of technique in poets such as James Merrill, distinguishes between what the series deems “best” and what is truly great. In “Oprah’s Adventures in Poetryland,” Orr considers a special issue of O, The Oprah Magazine that featured fashions modeled by young women poets. “Only a snob or an idiot,” he admits, “complains when the magic wand of Oprah is flourished in his direction.” Although he applauds her for popularizing poetry, he regrets that nowhere in the issue does anyone consider “the actual experience of reading a poem.” That experience is central to all of his essays: about Elizabeth Bishop, for example, whose work he finds characterized by “curious restraint”; poems by actor James Franco; and Louis MacNeice, whose reputation, Orr finds, is justifiably ascending.

Orr says the greatest compliment for any critic “is to say that you found yourself thinking of his writing the next time you encountered a good poem.” He abundantly deserves that same praise.

Pub Date: Feb. 7, 2017

ISBN: 978-0-14-312819-9

Page Count: 400

Publisher: Penguin

Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2016

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
DANGEROUS YEARS
by David Orr

- BOOK REVIEW
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
by David Orr

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.