The Dig and Hotel Fiesta (Illinois Poetry Series) [Paperback]

Lynn Emanuel (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"I am what is wrong with America" declares the poet, and the irony is gorgeous, the self-reproach sparkling with enough braggadocio to out-flash Las Vegas. Emanuel is a master of such double-edged, hard-boiled delivery, and often assumes a customized toughness to clip a wildly emotional character, to regulate her speaker's narcissistic wavering from "raptures of self-regard" to sloughs of self-destructiveness. "I am so tired," she writes, "I could lie down among these trees . . . / And let the earth take one slow liberty / After another." This is remarkable work, and readers will be grateful that Emanuel's two previously published books are now available in one rich volume. A great auteur, she imbues her sets with a crisp psychology, revealing the "eternal verity" in the quick dramas they backdrop. A great poet, she devastates and delights-often at once, as life does, but more intelligibly, acutely. "I am a pebble . . ." she concludes, "a loose thread, / nothing, really, the unimportant / and, therefore, immortal."
Copyright © 1996, Boston Review. All rights reserved. -- From The Boston Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (October 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252064208
• ISBN-13: 978-0252064203
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,275,523 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely enjoyable and sophisticated, December 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Dig and Hotel Fiesta (Illinois Poetry Series) (Paperback)

Emanuel is a terrifically strong writer, one America's best young mainstream poets, and this two-in-one volume holds up to -- and deserves -- close and repeated readings. The people who have given this book sophmoric, thoughtless one-star reviews are probably as pretentious and lacking in subtley as their comments.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shaping a world, January 23, 2000

By 

ariana (Tuscaloosa, Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dig and Hotel Fiesta (Illinois Poetry Series) (Paperback)

Lynn Emanuel's work in this combined collection is fresh and daring. It isn't surprising that some readers find it off-putting to encounter an entirely confident voice that doesn't beg a reader's approval but marches on with the keen intellect, humor, sharp and engaging characters and stories. Additionally Emanuel's imagery challenges and re-dresses the old cherry blossoms of verse.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shaping a world, January 23, 2000

By 

ariana (Tuscaloosa, Alabama) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Dig and Hotel Fiesta (Illinois Poetry Series) (Paperback)

Lynn Emanuel's work in this combined collection is fresh and daring. It isn't surprising that some readers find it off-putting to encounter an entirely confident voice that doesn't beg a reader's approval but marches on with the keen intellect, humor, sharp and engaging characters and stories and imagery that challenges the old cherry blossoms of verse.