Selected by Margaret Atwood as a winner in the 1987 Open Competition of the National Poetry Series, this unique collection was the first sounding of a deeply authentic voice. Ms. Howe's early writings concern relationship, attachment, and loss, in a highly original search for personal transcendence. Many of the thirty-four poems in The Good Thief appeared in such prestigious journals and periodicals as The Atlantic, The American Poetry Review, Poetry, Ploughshares, The Agni Review, and The Partisan Review.
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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Howe's first collection, chosen by Margaret Atwood for the "National Poetry" series, employs a somewhat simplistic, imprecise, yet fashionable surrealism: there are strange noises in the night, birds appear as omens, dead people converse. Premonitions of doom abound, but nothing is ever told fully: "If the man has died, if the child's illness has taken a sudden/turn, if the house has burned in the middle of night/ and in winter, there is at least a kind of stopping that will/pass for peace." But we never see the house burn, feel the winter's cold, or understand the peace. In the best poems (e.g., "Encounter," "The Beast") Howe hints at large emotional issues that, if explored more fully, might produce some powerful poetry. Rochelle Ratner, formerly Poetry Editor, "Soho Weekly News," New York
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
Apology
Bad Weather
The Beast
Death, The Last Visit
Encounter
From Nowhere
The Good Reason For Our Forgetting
Gretel, From A Sudden Clearing
Grosvenor Road
Guests
How Many Times
Isaac
Keeping Still
Letter To My Sister
Lullaby
Mary's Argument
The Meadow
Menses
The Mountain
My Father's Oak
Part Of Eve's Discussion
Providing For Each Other
Recovery
Retribution
Song Of The Spinster
Sorrow
The Split
A Thin Smattering Of Applause
The Unforgiven
Veteran's Day
What Belongs To Us
What The Angels Left
The Wise Men
Without Devotion
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
Howe's haunting lyricism lifts the back shades on the familial and the mythic in poems that bespeak a hard-earned compassion amid the world's chaffing. -- The Boston Phoenix
Marie Howe's poetry doesn't fool around . . . . [The poems] transcend their own dark roots. -- Margaret Atwood
[Howe] has stolen from domesticity not only the trappings of mysticism but the wisdom of experience. -- The Partisan Review
Bad Weather
The Beast
Death, The Last Visit
Encounter
From Nowhere
The Good Reason For Our Forgetting
Gretel, From A Sudden Clearing
Grosvenor Road
Guests
How Many Times
Isaac
Keeping Still
Letter To My Sister
Lullaby
Mary's Argument
The Meadow
Menses
The Mountain
My Father's Oak
Part Of Eve's Discussion
Providing For Each Other
Recovery
Retribution
Song Of The Spinster
Sorrow
The Split
A Thin Smattering Of Applause
The Unforgiven
Veteran's Day
What Belongs To Us
What The Angels Left
The Wise Men
Without Devotion
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®
Howe's haunting lyricism lifts the back shades on the familial and the mythic in poems that bespeak a hard-earned compassion amid the world's chaffing. -- The Boston Phoenix
Marie Howe's poetry doesn't fool around . . . . [The poems] transcend their own dark roots. -- Margaret Atwood
[Howe] has stolen from domesticity not only the trappings of mysticism but the wisdom of experience. -- The Partisan Review
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Graceful, heartfelt poems in a world often anything but "good",
By
This review is from: The Good Thief (National Poetry Series Books) (Paperback)
Marie Howe's first book of poems, "The Good Thief", is a splendid debut, presenting the maturity, courage and self-awareness that will sustain her role as neccessary reading for years to come. The compassion of her poetry easily puts her in the category of poets, Dorianne Laux and Sharon Olds. Fine examples of how the author achieves such beauty, is seen in "Death, the last visit", "Veteran's Day", "Menses", and others.
In her sophmore collection, the author surpasses the accomplishment of "Thief" with "What The Living Do", a collection of elegies dedicated to her brother, John, who died of AIDS. Over a dozen customer reviews praise her second book, on amazon.com. It is an absolute reward to purchase and revel in both of Marie Howe's collections.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
C'est si bon!,
By tdfy@hotmail.com (Boston,MA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Good Thief (National Poetry Series Books) (Paperback)
"What the angels left" is clever while "Death,the last visit" is so touching and puts forth a new idea of death.At the beginning of her career she really began with a bang.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Soothing,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Good Thief (National Poetry Series Books) (Paperback)
I went through two bookshelves of poetry at my local bookstore, and two hours later came away with just this one book. I read a poem each night before going to sleep. The writing is intimate and airy, refreshing when life has become too narrow.
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