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Title: Heroin and Other Poems by Charlie Smith ISBN: 0-393-32273-4 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: October, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (2 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Coming Back Around
Comment: Heroin is Charlie Smith's fifth book of poetry and it falls somewhere in the middle in terms of quality. There is a maturity here not present in earlier works, but the forced quality of the previous Before and After shows itself every now and then. Fortunately for us, the majority of Heroin is not glaringly autobiographical. Unfortunately, the narrative style of Smith's poetry seems to be slipping away. Standouts in this volume include "Beds", "Flowers of Manhattan", and "As for Trees". Respectively, these poems list all the different types of beds, flowers, and trees. But there is a music to them and a poignancy that pulls us out of that everyday fog we live in and makes us think of these things we wander by everyday. There is a sense of the disregarded here and an opening of that door. Several of the other more narrative poems work, but not in the same lyrical way as the non. Perhaps Mr. Smith has discovered his true forte is the novel. While the narrative poem might now feel forced, the poetic novel stands high overhead the sub-literary glop of the grocery store novel. And in today's market of glop disguised as lit, it is refreshing to know that someone out there is at least trying. Heroin falls way short of genius, but offers up enough promise to keep one hoping.
Rating: 5
Summary: Get your fix
Comment: Heroin, great, another drug book. I recognized Smith's name from 'Poetry' so I went past the title of this collection to see if it would surpass my inhibitions. Based on the poems in this collection, I think he could write a wonderful poem about dirty laundry. I have to confess to reading more fiction than poetry on average, though I'm slowly correcting this.
Favorite poems in here- Beautyworks- curls to recapitulation, Beds- a list poem, but an excellent ode to beds, and As For Trees, variation on a list of trees. Reading through the collection again, I could select so many as favorites.
Many times when I read a poetry collection, I will flip through and read a few random poems, but Smith's collection is so readable and his voice so strong like in Fistfight, each poem is worth your attention. Almost a stream (of consciousness) that flows so well, I would follow it over a waterfall, if he kept writing. They move like Of This I Speak to No One, drawing you in close, putting an arm around your shoulder telling you something in an intimate, confessional manner.
This is easily one of my favorite books of poetry in the past year. It bears comparison with Jane Hirshfield,
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Title: Women of America: Poems by Charlie Smith ISBN: 0393058158 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: March, 2004 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Walking to Martha's Vineyard by Franz Wright ISBN: 0375415181 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: October, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.00 |
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Title: Against Love : A Polemic by LAURA KIPNIS ISBN: 0375421890 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 26 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Old School by TOBIAS WOLFF ISBN: 0375401466 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 04 November, 2003 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward ISBN: 074325547X Publisher: Simon & Schuster Pub. Date: 19 April, 2004 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
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