Customer Reviews

Against Love Poetry: Poems

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I always find it challenging to rate a book of poetry, since a single great poem can make it worth the purchase. That said, I discovered more than a few wonderful poems in this collection. Certain language will stay with me for a long time, like this from the poem "Quarantine," about a couple who died walking north...

"But her feet were held against his breastbone.
The last heat of his flesh was his last gift to her."

Then there is this from "The First Year"...

"the steep inclines
and country silences
of your boyhood,
the orange-faced narcissi
and the whole length of the Blackwater"

And, from "Making Money"...

"see the small boundaries all this will buy
or the poisoned kingdom with its waterways
and splintered locks or the peacocks who will walk
this paper up and down in the windless gardens"

In the end, though I could discuss lines and silences, internal rhymes and themes, this is the only way to explain poetry...to share what startles and wait.

I ordered Against Love Poetry by Evan Boland on Amazon and received it within a week. I read it through and was thoroughly pleased with it. It suited my purposes but I was also able to relate to the material and learn from it.

//

This is a unique book of poems by
a woman "married thirty years"
who, if you'll pardon the expression,
tells it like it is.

It's no surprise that
this book, in particular, has
has raised the hackles of those
who prefer women to write
angst-inspired confessionals as opposed to
what we have here -- the truth.

The language, as always, is beautiful.

Two of the poems, "Quarantine" and "Thanked Be
Fortune" are fantastic. Read this book first, and

judge for yourself.

I was a great admirer of Ms. Boland's early poems, though what struck me as bold and innovative and fresh in that work has become (or so it seems to me) a sort of tired rhetorical posturing, and a sort of frumpy stylistic manner. Her early authority seems feigned now, and I personally find it hard to account for the flatness and airiness of the poems themselves. I should add that I say all this with a sinking heart, as I had very high hopes for her career.

Eavan Boland has made a lasting contribution to modern poetry in English. Her earlier volumes, excluding The Lost Land, explored themes of domesticity, women's creativity, and Irish nationalism in language both lyrical and tough-minded. Her latest collection seems flat and uninspired, as if she is imitating herself. As if she is thinking too much about what she wants to say and not letting her own poetic voice lead the way. Could the problem be that she is now spending too much time in the U.S. as a tenured academic at Stanford? Whatever the cause, I hope she returns to her earlier passion and power.

In this most pretentiously titled book, Boland continues to ask us to believe that she speaks for women everywhere and that she has something significant to say about Irish history and politics. It's no accident that she teaches and lives in America--in Ireland we're having none of her. Here she is deeply unpopular, especially among the younger generation of female poets who look to more innovative writers for their models. The problem is that Boland shamelessly courts the establishment with her predictable and traditionalist domestic (domesticated) verse while at the same time striking psuedo-revolutionary academic postures. The poems themselves are flat, frightened and derivative. This is very poor work indeed.

Against Love is an extremely interesting work. As the author states, it is a polemic (confrontational argument), not an essay or balanced account of the subject. It is purposefully designed to push the reader into a confrontatory state regarding the subject of love, especially in the context of marriage/coupling in current U.S. society.
I found Kipnis writing wonderful, witty, intense, and refreshing. She is the first author I have read in a long time that sent me packing off to the dictionary more than once in a book. She is erudite without being a stuffy academic, knowledgable without being pedantic, and humorous without being gross. I see her as having the honesty of a Carol Queen, the political savy and wit of a Molly Ivins or Jim Hightower, the insightful intellect of a Noam Chomsky, and more. This is one of the few books I have read in the last few years that had me laughing out loud in places. She really hits the nail right on the thumb. Regardless of how you feel about the topic or the ideas discussed, her writing alone is worth reading the book.

Of course, I may be biased. Her writing style is similar enough to mine that I felt very much at home with this book, and read it quickly. She does write in a style that is complex, with long sentences (and paranthetical asides). She also has a substantial vocabulary. Her use of style is neither narcissistic nor exhibitionistic, however. Her use of language in her presentation of ideas is pointed and precise, and it is difficult to put the book down once one starts reading it. (I found myself reading it in one sitting.) Despite being divided into chapters, it reads more like one long, flowing discussion.

As far as the actual material, it is not an exhaustive history of marriage and courtship behavior in U.S. society. It is a series of observations and arguments exploring the weakness of the concepts of love and marriage as they are viewed today by mainstream U.S. culture. Kipnis connects recent biological research, various social theories, and behavior reported by people in therapy to weave her arguments. She does address some historical material in order to provide context for her arguments, but again, it is by no means exhaustive. She does provide enough information, however, sources cited in the text and a bibliography and reference list, to encourage more in-depth exploration.

It is meant to be a starting point for further exploration and discussion, and offers no surprise happy endings and no panaceas. This is not a book about how to be polyamorous, develop new relationship styles, swing, or live happily alone. It is an intellectual broadside fired at the status quo in order to get people to open up and think about something which is normally not in their conscious awareness, and to question that which is usually mindlessly accepted.