Given [Paperback]

Arielle Greenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2002

Much anticipated in poetry circles, this debut poetry collection by the well-known younger poet and critic rises to the occasion, at once bold and tender, experimental and clear. Jean Valentine writes: "New consciousnesses shine here in delicate, angry, ecstatic, funny, heartbroken play: the forked lightning of true poetry."

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Arielle Greenberg's debut Given promises, and delivers, up-to-date, intellectually challenging comic verse, a nose and a half ahead of most of her peers: her best work remains both slippery and sharp, like ice skates in use. Greenberg's most attractive, most clearly American pieces incorporate, and answer, the styles and signatures of poets like Dean Young and Mark Levine, telling the "International Herald Tribune," for example, "Your newspaper is a two-star hotel"; her aggressively contemporary figures evoke worlds her readers know well: "All the soft serve flurry metaphors intended, right."
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

In Given, Arielle Greenberg makes dazzling explorations into the secrets embedded in language. -- Rain Taxi

Swift, tender, original - from the first word this poetry can be no other. -- Jean Valentine

The shapes of things shift in Arielle Greenberg's wonderful book Given. The poems... demand but oh they reward. -- C. S. Giscombe

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 88 pages
• Publisher: Wave Books; 1 edition (November 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0972348719
• ISBN-13: 978-0972348713
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #309,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Insta-Book, April 25, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Given (Paperback)

As I read this and realized what talent Greenberg has, I couldn't help but wish she'd waited a few years to publish a book. There are glimmers of genuine inventiveness here, but too many of these poems are weighted down by the baggage of a kind of currently hip easy and breezy pseudo-experimental gimmickry. Cutsey little typographic tricks (i.e. crossouts, dashes, slashes and scissor-shaped word-art), studied ironies cleverly juxtaposed against the mock-naive, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. When are the crowd publishing in places like Verse and Volt going to realize that its complacency, not experimentation, when your poems all look and sound exactly the same? Greenberg's good, but she still has to filter her own voice from the fashionable clamor of her influences.

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Versatile, Strange, and Rewarding Poet -- Superb Book, January 29, 2003

By 

Wa Re (Bloomington, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Given (Paperback)

No two poems in this book are alike. Or so it seems to me. Each page, each title, each poem, each line seems itself invented out of its own original pot or on its own original anvil. It's rather a *weird* experience to read Arielle Greenberg's first book -- because I kept wondering, "Like, how does she DO that?!" This book is a masala of influences, voices, and styles, entirely dialogic and curious. There is freshness on each page. What a gift, this GIVEN!

5.0 out of 5 stars Rabbits and Butterflies, April 24, 2009

By 

Carly-Anne (Racine, WI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Given (Paperback)

It is no surprise after reading Arielle Greenberg's "Given" that this is the book that put her on the map. She incorporates surrealist imagery, feminist idolatry, and a rejection of narrative voice that makes this book one that demands to be re-read and re-read again and again, (though re-reading might not give you any better of an idea of the "meaning" of most of the poems, if this is what you are looking for. If you are looking for a poet who spells it out for you, gives you some interestingly crafted lines that are clear and leave you with a sense of closure - pick up Chelsea Rathburn. If you are looking for a collection of poetry where you can close your eyes, plug your nose, and jump head first into a twisted rabbit hole of free verse without expecting to ever emerge - pick up "Given."