Customer Reviews

The Hell with Love: Poems to Mend a Broken Heart

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A charming collection whose only problem is the title. The title implies that the authors are angry and loveless when in fact they demonstrate a depth of understanding the full gamut of emotions surrounding the commitments people make to one another. My 20-year-old daughter (who knows less about poetry than I do) handed me me this book with the off-putting caveat "You probably won't get it, but I loved this!" I loved it too -- for the breath of the collection of poems, the witty and incisive commentary before each chapter, and mostly its affirmation of the beauty and bounty of finding love at any age and at any cost. I highly recommend that mothers give this to their daughters, fathers to their sons for Valentine's Day, but tell them first that this nifty book is, despite the cautionary title, a wise and witty book about how careful they should be to find and keep someone to love.

This collection, beautifully assembled and edited, helped me so damn much on Valentine's Day (especially hard day when you're still getting over losing someone you love). The poems are superb and superbly apt, the editors' brief essays are helpful and wonderfully understanding . Even though most of the essays are aimed at a female readership, a male reader can benefit too. Highest possible recommendation.

An inspired, superlative collection of poems, wittily introduced and neatly packed into a well-designed little black book.

The tellingly ironic candy hearts on the book's black cover hint that this is not a selection of drippily sentimental rhymes. The choice of works is inspired by a bright, smart, worldwise sensibility. Not only Shakespeare, Donne, Dickinson, Yeats, and Auden ... but also Elizabeth Bishop, Dorothy Parker, Louise Gluck, Denise Levertov, May Swenson, Marge Piercy, and Billy Collins. THE HELL WITH LOVE is every bit as refreshing and recuperative as a brisk walk on a clear, windy day.

A delightful gift for the heartbroken, world-weary, closeted romantic in us all. Perfect for Valentine's Day -- or 364 others.

I actually met the editors of this book when they visited my poetry class, and really enjoyed listening to them read aloud poems and commentary and speak about the process of putting the book together. Little did I know that a mere month later I too would become part of the target audience after breaking up with my fiance. I have to tell you, that made a very good book one hundred times more meaningful. I would recommend this to anyone who loves poetry, and particularly those who are in the post-breakup doldrums. The poems are beautiful, and the essays really pull them together.

Someone just gave me this book in an attempt to cheer me up after a bad love affair and it really worked! The poems are great, but the introductions are what really make this book fun. I laughed and cried, (just what I needed). I'm buying it for all of my girlfriends who are dateless this Valentine's Day.

This book is hilarious, profound, accessible, and absolutely perfect. Esselman and Velez break down break-ups into all of the stages you've experienced but never had the guts (or the sanity, at any given moment) to name--stages like rage, self-hatred, relapse, and moving on. Their commentary for the poems in each section is as intelligent and down-to-earth as the poems they choose. Read this, if you've ever even THOUGHT about being in--or out of--love. You'll find yourself entranced by the good poetry and comforted by the fact that no matter how you are trying to deal with a love lost, you aren't alone, or crazy: William Shakespeare, John Donne, Lucilie Clifton, and Billy Collins have all been members of the same lonely hearts club at one time or another...and, it seems, they've all come out laughing on the other side.

I LOVE this book. It seriously helped me through a rough breakup. I guess I should be grateful that the breakup happened around Valentines Day because that is the only reason I found this book. It was on a table full of other mushy poetry books, but I was drawn to the 'little black book' with the candy hearts on the cover. It hooked me from the beginning.

The book is broken up into different sections (anger, moving on, false hope, and eventually real hope)... feelings you actually go through during a breakup. And they are perfect. The poems for the ANGER section were exactly what I needed when I was so mad at the world.... and my ex.

The sections at the end, the real healing chapters, truly helped me. To know that someone else (and great poets at that!) has felt what I was feeling and that there is hope even when it does not seem like it, comforted me.

I really believe this book helped me through one of the hardest times of my life. I have recommended it to many friends who have also enjoyed it. Buy this book if you or someone you know needs help through a breakup or divorce!

After a tempestuous break up that lasted much longer than it should have, I was left destitute emotionally. I was at a book store, eyes red, puffy, in a virtual haze, when a friend of mine ran this book over to me. After reading the first poem ("you fit into me" by Margaret Atwood) I felt instantly better. And then I read the entire first section (titled "Rage") and decided I had to purchase it.

The book is divided into 8 sections: Rage, Sadness, Self-Hatred, False Hope, Resolve, Relapse, Real Hope, and Moving On. Throughout the book, the editors provide an introduction to each chapter and explain their reading of each poem and why it is included in the anthology. Normally I would think that such introductions were didactic and condescending, but Esselman and Velez do it with such good humor and down to earth understanding that I took more from their critical writing than I normally do in such anthologies.

While the editors are both female, both genders are well represented (i.e., this isn't just a book for "chicks"). While there seems to be a pretty large emphasis on modern and post-modern poets (e.e. cummings, Philip Larkin, Robert Frost, Dorothy Parker, and the aforementioned Atwood are all represented, as well as others), writers of other styles and periods are fairly well represented. There are some obvious poems, such as Emily Dickinson's "After Great Pain," John Donne's "The Flea", and excerpts from Hamlet and Macbeth, and there are some pleasant surprises: Larkin's bitter sing-song "This Be the Verse", Yehuda Amichai's heartwrenching "Quick and Bitter" (with the most beautiful and biting last lines I can remember in a love poem), and the exquisite imagery of "my dreams, my works, must wait till after hell" by Gwendolyn Brooks.

If you have a friend who has recently experienced a painful break up, buy them this book. If you, yourself, have recently experienced it, treat yourself to a little gift that's cheaper than therapy and anti-depressants. I kept my copy in my backpack for six months, and whenever any of the horrible, destructive emotions of rejection would sieze me, I would take it out and read one of my favorites. When I finally began to get over the break up, it took a place at my bedside, where I would read the last two chapters frequently. Its now going to be passed to a friend who recently had her heartbroken, but I will surely be getting another copy in the future... if only to give to other heartbroken friends.

Editors Esselman and Velez not only select kick-ass poems to heal those hurt by bad break-ups but slap on some bitchin' commentary to help us poetry-phobic types understand what's these literati are sayin'. Two big smooches for this compact compilation that should get any open-minded but broken-hearted fool back on the path toward jumping back in the saddle or just enjoying the peace that comes with feeling content with life.

Finally a book of poetry that describes every emotion you go through when you are in love and heart broken. This book is amazing and wonderful. I recommend it to who ever loves poetry and ever had a broken heart.