All of the Above (Barnard New Women Poets Series) [Paperback]

Dorothy Barresi (Author), Leonard E. Barrett Sr. (Author)

Book Description

Series: Barnard New Women Poets Series | Publication Date: April 30, 1991

Winner of the 1990 Barnard New Women Poets Prize.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This collection gives new breadth and meaning to the familiar cliche of its title. Newcomer Barresi's all-inclusive, unadulterated vision embraces popular culture, personal experience and historical events. Her poems are a subtle chronicle of American life and its immigrant underpinnings over the past several decades, from the 1950s, "the refrigerator . . . so turquoise it hurts," through the "smug, bankable eighties." The characters who populate these poems range from a young car salesman in "eel-skin cowboy boots" to a Mexican mother "dangling a child by his ankles, headfirst / into the garbage dumpster . . . " as the poet sets out to explore the "work of this world." It's easy to get caught up in Barresi's energetic rush of language and to accept as wildly inventive her often unlikely metaphors and rash imaginative leaps. While the result is, for the most part, compelling and convincing, this unrestrained impulse leads too frequently to imprecise imagery and sweeping philosophical pronouncements that awkwardly state the obvious ("What we do to stay alive / is different from what we are"). Broumas is the author of Pastoral Jazz.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Barresi, winner of the 1990 Barnard New Women Poets Prize, writes poems that have snap, crackle, and pop, with just the right amount of poetic mystery. Child of the suburban Fifties, Barresi writes tough yet elegiac poems that explore her family mythos, with domestic dramas enacted in the glow of the TV screen, "where particles charge and involve us/ and we are kissed awake/ from one native sorrow to another's." Barresi's poetry has wit and pathos: "Tonight I'm listening to the rain as it hangs/ in the pawnshop of those brief trees/ asking for everything." Her metaphors are a delight: "a spider walks on its eight legs forward--/ tiny unlit chandelier." In all, an impressive debut from a poet worth watching. Recommended for poetry collections.
- Christine Stenstrom, New York Law Sch. Lib.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (April 30, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807068152
• ISBN-13: 978-0807068151
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.3 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,203,315 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of my favorite books of poetry, February 7, 2000

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"jelyon" - See all my reviews

This review is from: All of the Above (Barnard New Women Poets Series) (Paperback)

I've been enjoying this book for 6 years, every since I bought it for a creating writing class at Indiana University. The poems are lovely, well crafted, and imaginative in their use of language.

If you love poetry, I highly recommend this book.