Franz Wright (1953–2015)

Franz Wright's poems are a case study in existential despair and gnawing bitterness. At their best they recall the dreaded and ethereal moods of Rilke, brooding images set beside a well placed expletive or a defeated admission. Sometimes he ends a poem on an abstraction that dampens the effect of more powerful lines and moments that precede it, but these are not numerous enough to really mar the work as a whole. There are some middling pieces here, but since the book contains Wright's first show more four collections, that's forgivable. Most are good poems, and almost twenty of them are absolutely brilliant. If you enjoy the early work of Frank Bidart, the more cynical bits of Philip Levine, or if I may the songs of Elliott Smith, you will find something resonant in these earlier collections by Franz Wright. show less

Wright's searing black humour is at the forefront in this collection of confessional poems chronicling his mental illness, addiction, and painful, glorious recovery. This is the best book I have by a living poet; he should have won the Pulitzer for this one.

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.

This book won a Pulitzer Prize, and deserved it. The author finds beauty and consolation among the rugged truths of mental illness and mortality.