The Door [Hardcover]

Margaret Atwood (Author), Phoebe Larmore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 2007

The Door, Margaret Atwood’s first book of poetry since her award-winning Morning in the Burned House, is a magnificent achievement. These fifty lucid, urgent poems range in tone from lyric to ironic to meditative to prophetic, and in subject from the personal to the political, viewed in its broadest sense. They investigate the mysterious writing of poetry itself, as well as the passage of time and our shared sense of mortality.
Brave and compassionate, The Door interrogates the certainties that we build our lives on, and reminds us once again of Margaret Atwood’s unique accomplishments as one of the finest and most celebrated writers of our time.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The first book of poems in 12 years from the now world-famous Canadian author (The Handmaid's Tale) combines an older writer's reflections on aging with the dire warnings-political, environmental and moral-familiar from Atwood's recent fiction. Short lines and deliberate, balanced phrases consider how "my mother dwindles and dwindles/ and lives and lives," how senior citizens hike and trek across tundra, and how privileged citizens of rich nations might understand refugees from far-off wars. "Owl and Pussycat, Some Years Later"-the longest poem in the book, the wittiest and likely the best-retells the familiar rhyme as a parable of late-career poets, rueful and "no longer semi-immortal," yet still conversing, still writing, as they go on rowing "out past the last protecting/ sandbar." Other verse shows Atwood-who began as a poet, despite her fame as a novelist-looking at the climate for new poetry amid the sometimes funny parochialism of its audiences (in Canada or anywhere). Yet the predominant notes are fiercely grim: ice melts and cracks, mammals head towards extinction, "the hurt child will bite you... And its blood will seep into the water/ and you will drink it every day." One page compares all poets everywhere to violinists on the Titanic. Another declares, truthfully, "That's what I do:/ I tell dark stories/ before and after they come true."
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Review

"Atwood's poems are short, glistening with terse, bright images." (New York Times )

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition edition (November 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618942726
• ISBN-13: 978-0618942725
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,057,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

MARGARET ATWOOD, whose work has been published in over thirty-five countries, is the author of more than forty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. In addition to The Handmaid's Tale, her novels include Cat's Eye, shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Alias Grace, which won the Giller Prize in Canada and the Premio Mondello in Italy; The Blind Assassin, winner of the 2000 Booker Prize; and her most recent, Oryx and Crake, shortlisted for the 2003 Booker Prize. She lives in Toronto with writer Graeme Gibson.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars UNSENTIMENTAL ELEGIES, November 9, 2007

By 

Panopticonman "panopticonman" (Brooklyn, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Door (Hardcover)

Margaret Atwood's THE DOOR could very well have been subtitled UNSENTIMENTAL ELEGIES: the same clear-eyed, sometimes caustic observations that give her novels their energy and force are also everywhere apparent in this strong collection of short poems.

At times intensely personal, Atwood's poems seek to find a common thread of humanity in their narration of such every day tragedies as the death of a beloved cat, or the slow onset of her mother's senility. Always alive to the possibility that suffering can distort our humanity, render us blind and selfish, Atwood shows us that we must learn to be sentimental in only the best and highest sense of that word.

Altogether THE DOOR is a good solid collection that is perfectly in keeping with Atwood's masterful, often inspired fiction. Recommended.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Atwood returns to poetry, November 2, 2008

By 

Therese Pantazakos "Panda Reader" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Door (Hardcover)

From the cat in the freezer to dealing with her grief you will want to own this book to read and re-read.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what you would expect from this author, October 25, 2011

By 

P. Chandler "g'ma" (W.H., CT) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Door (Hardcover)

i love Margaret Atwood's writing. I've read just about all of her books, so I was surprised this was a book of poetry. When I ordered it I didn't notice this fact. It isn't my cup of tea, but my intellect and life style aren't very conducive to reading poetry. I may give it another try after some time has passed, but on first blush it was not my thing.