Civilian Histories (The Contemporary Poetry Series) [Paperback]

Lee Upton (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Contemporary Poetry Series | Publication Date: April 6, 2000

In Civilian Histories, her fourth book of poetry, Lee Upton portrays contemporary culture as the many-eyed, monstrous argus, and explores the common gestures between people and among cultures that constitute “foreign relations.” Formally ambitious, ranging from short, allusive lyrics to long, intricately patterned sequences, Upton’s poems reflect on complicity in and vulnerability to violence. Her poems also explore moments of hard-won triumph for the vivid, provocative people who inhabit them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The most prominent historical figure in these Civilian Histories is Mary Rowlandson, whose story of Indian captivity--coupled with the pleasures of food--inaugurates the American obsession with the boundaries between domestic intimacy and public knowledge. While the terrain of intimate behavior her is often familiar, its texture is not; a dissociation infiltrates all of Upton's rituals, to the point where the book begins in the midst of disappointment: "And eyes not lulled as I wanted them to be." (Upton is the author of The Muse of Abandonment, a study of Russell Edson, Louise Gl?ck, James Tate, Jean Valentine and Charles Wright.) In "Garden Solstice," for instance, "In the glint of needle light,/ of grass seeds, dew flecks,/ a friend is throwing her voice/ while far inside our grainy heaven/ a butcher's apron/ ripples its dried blood in the wind." The book is in fact stuffed with food and flavor: oysters, sugar, berries, eggs, basil, spearmint. But far from offering up a neo-magical-realist feast, Upton, whose No Mercy (1989) was chosen for the National Poetry Series, uses oral imagery to enrich the odd appetizers of language she serves with cautious passion: "Sins get weepier, phlegmier, looser./ He's the trunk of the family tree// and each topmost branch,/ each living shade above him/ bears its fruits." The 70-odd page-length lyrics and five slightly longer serial poems in this seventh collection branch out with a heat of intimacy that is sensual, remarkable and pointed. (Apr.)
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Review

"A moving exploration that forces readers to realize how many censoring forces compel them into various captivities of history."--Boston Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: University of Georgia Press; First Edition edition (April 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0820321850
• ISBN-13: 978-0820321851
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,256,985 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lee Upton was born in Michigan and hoped to be a writer practically from the moment she learned to read. Her writing has received multiple awards, and her poetry, fiction, and essays appear widely. Her most recent book is The Guide to the Flying Island. She has a special affection for that book; the ending was as much a surprise to her as it's likely to be a surprise to any reader.