Customer Reviews

Carnival Evening: New and Selected Poems 1968-1998

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Linda Pastan, for several years Maryland's poet laureate, has crowned several decades of her subtle, courageous writing with this compendium of beautiful poems. Pastan never shrinks from the deepest feelings, from her own shadows and demons, instead converts them into beauty and invites her readers to know her deeply. Her sense of meter, line breaks, word music are a model for young poets, and her subject matter, the corners of the heart, an inspiration and comfort to those of us who live with razor sharp sensitivity. She is a beacon still shining through the fog in an age where violence, bravado, and novelty dull the senses and lead us to shrink from ourselves. With her poetry, we return home to the delicate nuances of living, dreaming, loving, andmost of all, telling the truth.

Whether mapping out her life in the voice of Eve or contemplating maternity, aging, and the writing life, Pastan rarely slips out of form. Her careful and lucid attention to detail makes this book a valuable addition to any poetry library. Highly recommended.

Linda Pastan's book covers thirty years of her poetry, from 1968-1998, and it is a book worthy of having. Somone told me that Pastan was by no means a _great_ poet, but that she was a very good poet. There's no more accurate description of her work. She's not going to be another Frost or Plath or Dickinson or Bishop, but her work is enjoyable and quite well-written. There is a preponderance of religous and motherhood contained within, so be prepared. But that doesn't detract from the book. She handles her subjects well and her language well. I'll say it again, it is a good book and one I think you'll enjoy.

It has been awhile since I picked up a good book of poetry -- a book that directly spoke to me with universal themes and that conveyed the beauty that's hidden within the ordinary tempo of life. Linda Pastan's poetry is simultaneously wise, clever, and heartbreaking, all at the same time. She doesn't shy away from uncomfortable themes: loneliness, despair, death. Yet she intersperses these themes with the sheer, exhilarating joy of the simple moments of life.

For me -- a daughter with an aging mother -- words such as "Everywhere the steam of life goes on, and I try to go with it, non-swimmer, paddler in a leaky canoe" resonated strongly. As a lover of books, I related to her poem that begins, "Just looking at them I grow greedy, as if they were freshly baked loaves waiting on their shelves to be broken open -- that one and that -- and I made my choice..." As one who has been hurt (as all of us have), I was astounded by, "Tonight I understand for the first time how a woman might choose her own death as easily as if it were a dark plum she picked from a basket of bright peaches." And as someone who married in midlife, I loved the poem Because: "Because I knew that after twenty years you'd bring the plants inside for winter and make a jungle we'd sleep in naked; because I had free will; because everything is ordained; I said yes."

Linda Pastan speaks to all of us, particularly all of us women. Her poems deserve to be celebrated.

Linda Pastan's poetry embodies the secrets and longings of an intelligent and artistic woman living the double essence of a wife/mother and a studious and inspired poet. Her images are sharp, violently emotional in a context of harsh realities. Her reinvention of religious and classical myths grounds daily female routines, giving them wings at the same time.

These are insightful and mature poems through which we glimpse moments of a life well-lived. WE dream as the poet dreams. WE grow as the poet grows. Linda Pastan is truly a gifted poet.

Linda Pastan's book is a great book of poetry. It's easy to read, conversational in style, and has universal themes. She writes a lot of her poems the way I write mine, so I can relate to her style, word use, and line breaks. As a woman, I think many of her poems might be more accessible to other women, since many of her themes are female oriented (love, marriage, children, even the GYN visit). Some highlight: "Knots": (oh yes how I too have wanted to escape), "Blizzard": (good stream of consciousness), "Shadows": (a great sestina!), "To a Daughter Leaving Home," and many more too numerous to mention. The only reason why I am not giving it 5 stars is because I think there are too many poems in the collection that are repetitive in theme- lots of "Am I growing too old?" and "my parents are dying/dead- now what?" Maybe when I'm 64 I'll appreciate those melancholy themes more, but at 45, I think not. That's just MHO.