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Loading... The Beforelife (edition 2002)by Franz Wright
Work InformationThe Beforelife by Franz Wright
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. Verbal Visions: This is a beautiful volume. ( ) there is some excellent stuff here. he is on the fence, one foot in the dark side and one in the light. illuminates what is is like to be an outsider. maybe i am not so crazy after all? or maybe i am...my favorite quote, "a strangerness that will always be with him sometimes cruel and often funny scared to death every so often for days on end" yup. that's about right. no reviews | add a review
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In this stunning collection, Franz Wright chronicles the journey back from a place of isolation and wordlessness. After a period when it seemed certain he would never write poetry again, he speaks with bracing clarity about the twilit world that lies between madness and sanity, addiction and recovery. Wright negotiates the precarious transition from illness to health in a state of skeptical rapture, discovering along the way the exhilaration of love--both divine and human--and finding that even the most battered consciousness can be good company. Whether he is writing about his regret for the abortion of a child, describing the mechanics of slander ("I can just hear them on the telephone and keening all their kissy little knives"), or composing an ironic ode to himself ("To a Blossoming Nut Case"), Wright's poems are exquisitely precise. Charles Simic has characterized him as a poetic miniaturist, whose "secret ambition is to write an epic on the inside of a matchbook cover." Time and again, Wright turns on a dime in a few brief lines, exposing the dark comedy and poignancy of his heightened perception. Here is one of the poems from the collection: Description of Her Eyes Two teaspoonfuls, and my mind goes everyone can kiss my ass now-- then it's changed, I change my mind. Eyes so sad, and infinitely kind. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)811.54Literature English (North America) American poetry 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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