Fear of Dreaming: The Selected Poems (Poets, Penguin) [Paperback]

Jim Carroll (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This volume combines two previous collections of Carroll's poetry, Living at the Movies and The Book of Nods , with several recent unpublished works.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Two new entries in the "Penguin Poets" series examine poetry at its most modish on both coasts. Carroll's East Coast disjunctive poems and hard urban prose "nods" are kinetic and ebullient. A selection of 20 years of his work overlays the worlds of Al Bundy and Hieronymus Bosch: "The shower of black infants across the infected landscape" dissolves into "the disappearance of boundaries/ on a sea, filthy and darkened with bodies." One is captivated by the imagery ("bloodstained sombreros") that depicts the "post-meltdown" nature of anxiety but disappointed that life as seen from New York City streets offers so little compassion. Lacking O'Hara's reckless sense of longing or Ashbery's wise allusiveness, these works are recommended for those who enjoy contemporary urban poetry. Shorn of the music of the Grateful Dead (he is the group's "primary lyricist"), Hunter's narrow-lined West Coast light verse has a childlike intensity. He celebrates "a beatific bebop vision": San Francisco, poetry, and the need for freedom. "Weaponed with words," Hunter's poetic consciousness is both bizarre and commonplace (e.g., "a tongue of swords" explodes "the pus sac of deep profanity"). Suggesting a blend of the Partridge Family and Allen Ginsberg, Hunter has a frame of reference of never-never land pseudomysticism ("Tantric ecstasy," "Magus of Thebes"), lost happiness, and sappy nuggets of wisdom. Like his "Sonnets in Stone," Hunter's lyrics are "primitive with punctuation, grieving for/ long-lost loves of the future, restless and/ ill-amused." Recommended for young readers and high school creative writing classes.
- Frank Allen, West Virginia State Coll., Institute
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (November 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140586954
• ISBN-13: 978-0140586954
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #418,187 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RIVETING AND DEEP, LEAVES YOU STUNNED, February 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Fear of Dreaming: The Selected Poems (Poets, Penguin) (Paperback)

Jim Carroll is by far one of my favorite poets. He sees so much deeper than most people. The words and even fonts he uses sucks you in and you feel as though you have been transported to another world. I first got interested in his poetry when I saw "The Basketball Diaries" with Leonardo DiCaprio, and the poetry made the movie even more powerful than it already was. I left the theatre stunned. I then went to a reading of Carroll's poetry at Seton Hall University, and was fortunate enough to meet him. He is an amazing guy. The poems are deep and their power and emotion pervade your body so that you can never forget them. People think that becuse Carroll writes modern poetry, that his poems are trash. That is certainly the opposite of what they are, and I think that his poems are more interesting than poets who write the lovey-dovey, rhyming type stuff. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to be swept away in the urban-like poetry of today.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful, November 24, 1999

By 

katiana (london, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fear of Dreaming: The Selected Poems (Poets, Penguin) (Paperback)

this book is incredible. "to the secret poets of kansas" is by far one of the most wonderful poemsi have ever read. i encourage anyone who is looking for poetry to read and savor these poems, they are certainly worth it.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It is very real. It tells of life. IT IS GREAT!!!!, April 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Fear of Dreaming: The Selected Poems (Poets, Penguin) (Paperback)

This book is a must have for teenagers. Jim Carrol describes the pain and suffering that he has gone through very beautifully. He is able to compute messages throughout his poems. What makes it even better is that you know that he has been through all of that past with drugs, and he has come back as a improved person. His poems show this.