Customer Reviews

The Father

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the fourth book I have read by Sharon Olds. I found The Father to be less enjoyable than her other collections of poetry such as Satan Says or The Dead and the Living.

In The Father, it seems that Olds has finally come to terms with her father and forgiven him for the past, but I am not sure if Olds just doesn't have anything left to say, or if I'm just not interested in hearing it. To me, The Father seems to be typical and redundant-in content and style. Don't get me completely wrong though, there were a few poems I really liked, and several metaphors here and there really caught my attention. As usual, Olds was very frank and direct about her emotions, but overall I felt very uninspired by this collection of poems. By the end I was just bored and ready to be done with the book. It is like reading someone who doesn't know what to write about but feels compelled to write anyway. If you have never read Olds, I would recommend her earlier work first.

My father died a month ago, after four years of illness. I was with him when he died, and I went to Amazon to look for a book that would help me to interact with the extraordinary experience of the death of my father. Sharon Olds' book was far more than I had hoped to have been able to find. I have been carrying it with me for two weeks now and reading passages over and over. She has written the poems I would have written had I been a poet in the middle of the experience of my father's dying. Exceptional and moving.

This is one of the most eloquent readings I have ever come across. Ms. Olds powerful use of metaphor to describe the tormented relationship she had with her father is insightful and inspiring. This should be required reading for any young female (indeed people of all genders and ages) struggling to find a means for remaining not only sane, inspite of the insanity in to which some of us are born, but how to remain caring, compassionate and creatively involved with your surroundings, despite the chaos of whatever personal hell you must survive to do so.

I agree with everything the positive reviewers said. This is a pretty bold exploration of a relationship most of us have but few of us take the time to examine. I like that Olds isn't afraid to take risks. Maybe she does repeat herself -- but that's the risk you run when you write poetry. Usually your subject is yourself and how you move inside this world and relate to other people.

THE FATHER, by Sharon Olds is one of my favorite books of poetry. Each poem in this wonderful collection is a gem unto itself as well as an integral part of a whole, with "The Race" being my favorite.

This superb book has led me to all the other Sharon Olds collections and in that to a beauty of writing that must be felt to be believed. Brilliant and soul satisfying at the same time, the poetry of Sharon Olds is simply magnificent.

The Father, by Sharon Olds is an interesting book of poems in which the reader becomes more and more involved in the intriguing love-hate relationship between a daughter and her dying father. This confessional work is a tad depressing in that Olds does not try to sugarcoat any aspect of the degradation process of her father, and yet there is something refreshing about this honesty. It is definitely a book everyone should read in order to understand the true meaning of loss, and the effect that death has on a person.

Excruciating in their revelations, potent with revolution, Sharon Olds' poems approach the dominance of father over daughter with shocking force, raw intimacy, and ultimately grace. The reverberant layering of the collection's structure generates an irresistible pull into the core of self and family, from which Olds helps the reader emerge able to engage with greater transparency, and love with unlimited will.

This is one of the best books I have ever read and Olds is a major talent, not just in the world of autobiographical poetry... but in the world of international literature. ---

I first read this collection some years back, and was incredibly moved at the time. Since then, I've gone through a similiar experience in my own family, so returning to this book actually provided some sense of closure. Regardless, it is a tremendous effort, and a beautiful one. Sharon Olds is, without doubt, the best living poet in America, and that's saying a lot.