Customer Reviews

Famous Americans (Yale Series of Younger Poets)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

the booklist review above is pretty accurate, but i thought i'd add my 2 cents. this collection is quite good, although it should be noted that humorous doesn't necessarily mean light. goodman has a knack for unlikely juxtapositions and clearly loves playing with language in the form of non sequiturs and malapropisms. at their best, as in "yeast" which is a play on the poet yeats and in "touchdown to college!" which starts off as a badly spelled essay and which morphs unexpectedly into beautiful poetry, the poems' results are strangely moving. a little too often his poetry is simply gimmicky, as in the series of movie castlists which feature "max von sydow" in a slew of roles, or the life of benjamin franklin, both of which quickly become rather predictable. a quick read for some good laughs and chuckles, as well some moments of emotional reaction.

This is a fantastic book of poetry, relentlessly goofy and original. Tired of the angst, the pretentiousness, the studiously casual stuff that passes for poetry these days? Check this book out. You will not be disappointed. If only more books like this won the major awards.

I am torn in my feelings about Loren Goodman's "Famous Americans" (2003). There're parts in the book that are genuinely good while other parts simply feel like "filler" material. The opening section, "Founding Fathers," has some gems in it.

Take, for instance, the first poem, "Recital":

Beethoven looked mean, but Liszt looked
tough. When Beethoven stared Liszt smiled without opening his lips
and said "What?" and Beethoven backed off to his little room.

"Recital" is a sort of preamble into what the reader is going to expect from the book. A book called "Famous Americans" contains, right off the bat, straight dead white males of the Old World. For a reader not well versed in the biographies of European composers, he or she will "get" instantly the sheer wackiness and inventiveness of the scene. Here, disparate historical/musical figures are placed on the same up-to-date stage, with just the right touch of laugh-out-loud cattiness.

The denizens of "Founding Fathers" comprise not only of male figures (Americans and otherwise), but also females (Gloria Vanderbilt), animals ("your cat"), things (Noakhail Express, 70's Chevy, a chalice-like cup), New York City, and various imaginary figures.

Other imaginative scenarios abound. From interviews and script for screenplays to a film showing and one-on-one conversations, one can see clearly the effect of Anne Carson on this young writer. Carson has single-handedly revived, in recent memory, the script and interview formulae employed by Goodman.

Goodman's experiments, seemingly fresh and innovative, can become rote and mechanical. For example, his "Psalm For The Soul Of An Expressionist Playwright," with its 37-line "When I hear the word _______ I reach for _______" gets to be tiresome.

The reviewer Brian Phillips, in the February 04 issue of POETRY magazine, succinctly writes:

"Loren Goodman, Merwin writes [in the Foreword], 'clearly loves nonsense for its own sake.' He also loves being clever, and most of the poems in Famous Americans are the kind of clever nonsense verse that many young poets are busying themselves with today."

Not a bad prognosis. "Famous Americans" has a whiff of the workshop (look at Goodman's biographical notes and this bit: "Mánager: Kenzo Koch"). It makes for an amusing read but most of the poems are merely fun exercises to try to get the creative juices flowing, which Goodman succeeds. I don't hear a distinctive voice in Goodman however, and the book, in the last analysis, does not amount to a truly great one.

Reading this book is like being strapped to the nose of a rocket as it leaves the planet's surface. Just try to close your eyes--the wind will pin your lids back. Goodman's language is endlessly surprising even as he presents film scenarios, fragments of high school history, conversations, etc., that we expect we've seen or heard before. But we haven't. Not like this. Goodman is no mere poet, he's a cat therapist. _Famous Americans_ is more than comic poetry. The cumulative effect of the poems is extraordinary. By the time you get to "The Prize" or "Friendship," you realize that the poems don't just make you laugh (provided you have a heartbeat), but show you a new variety of compassion. What an accomplishment!

The sheer unfunniness, strained wackiness and air of desperation is inadvertently interesting at times. There were lines that gave me a shock of insight into the barren wasteland of 21st Century Tribal Academic Poetics (Columbia, SUNY, kissing ass, 'networking' ad nauseum). The author makes a 'clever' little 'end run' around his competitors. I admire his 'winning choices' as 'moves' in the 'poetry game' the way I'd admire a sharp real estate developer. I really do. That is why I gave him two stars and not one. One gets SO tired sometimes....