Medicine (Poets, Penguin) [Paperback]

Amy Gerstler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2000 | Series: Poets, Penguin

Amy Gerstler has won acclaim for complex yet accessible poetry that is by turns extravagant, subversive, surreal, and playful. In her new collection, Medicine, she deploys a variety of dramatic voices, spoken by such disparate characters as Cinderella's wicked sisters, the wife of a nineteenth-century naturalist, a homicide detective, and a woman who is happily married to a bear. Their elusive collectivity suggests, but never quite defines, the floating authorial presence that haunts them. Gerstler's abiding interests--in love and mourning, in science and pseudo-science, in the idea of an afterlife--are strongly evident in these new poems, which are full of strong emotion, language play, surprising twists, and a wicked sense of black humor.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"Dear Lord, fire-eating custodian of my soul,/ author of hemaphrodites, radishes,/ and Arizona's rosy sandstone,/ please protect this wet-cheeked baby/ from disabling griefs, " Gerstler's eighth book of poems begins with a "Prayer for Jackson" that invokes a parent's hopes ("make him so charismatic/ that even pigeons flirt with him") and fears for a childDeasily transposable onto this often luminous book. Following the NBCC Award-winning Bitter Angel, 1998's Crown of Weeds and some short fiction for magazines, this collection offers prose poems with long chains of noun phrases circling around delicate subjects (snow, solace); column-shaped, short-lined fantasias, often driven by rhyme, and also given to lists; and edgy, nearly surreal, loosely narrative poems in unrhymed, talk-like lines. Gerstler is a James Tate-like master of many familiar postmodern tropes, but the best poems here always have a distinctive spin, run through her abiding interests the intersections of self, soul sickness and cultural drek. A poem based on the ostensible proverb "toasted cheese hath no master" works itself out as an exploration of rhymes like "pasture," "repast, sir," and "Chinese aster." "The Bride Goes Wild" consists entirely of film titles ("I ConfessDI'm No Angel, I Am the Law!"). And the longish title poem, spoken by a kind of mystical doctor, prides itself on incorporating brief catalogues of diseases, folk remedies, organs and tissues, and free-floating verbs: "We read, breed, hope rarebit's/ on tonight's menu, consult our watches." The radio play "Lovesickness" (for "four disembodied voices") seems genuinely meant for performance: its explorations of eros, physiology and distraction might sound wonderful on the air. If a fiction-writer's taste for rhetorical bravado can be obtrusive at times ("Away with your homely reproaches, you rough bundle of straw"), on the whole this is a vibrant and passionate collection of poems, one whose standouts are memorable and humane. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Bitter Angel (1991), Gerstler here offers a fanfare of language that rolls over itself and brings to fruition verbal melodies, dramatic juxtaposition, and interior monolog. These glib commentaries on stepmothers ("Cinderella Scorched") mother-son relationships ("To My Husband, on the First Anniversary of His Mother's Death"), and the cultural, philosophical, and political boundaries of religion ("A Non-Christian on Sunday, Yom Kippur in Utah") make for entertaining verbal swordplay as well as socially significant compositions. Although the subjects of Gerstler's poems might make readers feel challenged, if not vulnerable, an unassuming language and a healthy sense of suspended disbelief will keep them moving bemusedly through Gerstler's deep thoughts. This is the author's third book, after Crown of Weeds and Nerve Storm, to be published in the "Penguin Poets" series. Highly recommended for high school readers and older.DAnn K. van Buren, Riverdale Country Sch., New York
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (June 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140589244
• ISBN-13: 978-0140589245
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,114,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Witty and Well Crafted, July 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Medicine (Poets, Penguin) (Paperback)

Amy Gerstler is one of the most interesting contemporary poets writing today. Her poems evoke a strange (and often humorous and dark) world touching directly on our lives today. This is a riveting collection of multi-faceted works that you will want to read over and over.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!, July 24, 2000

By 

Craig C. Brandau - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Medicine (Poets, Penguin) (Paperback)

Amy Gerstler's work is wonderful, imaginative, personal yet universal. Even for those who usually do not enjoy poetry will love this collection. I've sent copies to friends who now also have have high praise for Amy Gerstler.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow, August 23, 2000

By 

Leslie Rowen (Venice, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Medicine (Poets, Penguin) (Paperback)

This book was given to me as a gift and for someone who doesn't usually read poetry, I enjoyed it immensely. The poems are incredibly personal and well written. I definitely would give this book to friends.