The Monster Loves His Labyrinth [Paperback]

Charles Simic (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2008

“Nabokovian in his caustic charm and sexy intelligence, Simic perceives the mythic in the mundane and pinpoints the perpetual suffering that infuses human life with both agony and bliss. . . . And he is the master of juxtaposition, lining up the unlikeliest of pairings and contrasts as he explores the nexuses of madness and prophecy, hell and paradise, lust and death.”—Donna Seaman, Booklist

"As one reads the pithy, wise, occasionally cranky epigrams and vignettes that fill this volume, there is the definite sense that we are getting a rare glimpse into several decades worth of private journals--and, by extension are privy to the tickings of an accomplished and introspective literary mind."—Rain Taxi

Written over many years, this book is a collection of notebook entries by our current Poet Laureate.

Excerpts:

Stupidity is the secret spice historians have difficulty identifying in this soup we keep slurping.

Ars poetica: trying to make your jailers laugh.

American identity is really about having many identities simultaneously. We came to America to escape our old identities, which the multiculturalists now wish to restore to us.

Ambiguity is the world’s condition. Poetry flirts with ambiguity. As a “picture of reality” it is truer than any other. This doesn’t mean that you’re supposed to write poems no one understands.

The twelve girls in the gospel choir sang as if dogs were biting their asses.

What an outrage! This very moment gone forever!

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The current U. S. poet laureate and a Pulitzer Prize winner, Simic is famous for his short, cryptic poems that draw on his eventful early life, which he describes in dramatic detail here, in notebooks he has kept for decades but never published in book form. The young Simic and his family lived in Serbia, as bombs fell on it, during World War II; later, they fled to difficult lives in Chicago, where the poet's high-spirited father was often penniless. The first of the notebooks' four sections collect compelling autobiographical reminiscences, of Serbia, of Chicago, and of the young adult poet's time in New York. The second collects the sort of images and juxtapositions that Simic might well have wanted to use in a poem—the best are, in effect, prose poems: Snow arriving this morning at my door like a mail-order bride. The last three of five sections do not always preserve the force of first: their statements about poetry in general, and their reactions to (and against) the academy, bear little surprise. Yet Simic's stature as a maker of poems still makes all of his prose worth reading, and the autobiographical sections make this book a keeper. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"As one reads the pithy, wise, occasionally cranky epigrams and vignettes that fill this volume, there is the definite sense that we are getting a rare glimpse into several decades worth of private journals--and, by extension are privy to the tickings of an accomplished and introspective literary mind." --Rain Taxi, Spring 2008

"Inside is a selection of undated memories, aphorisms, observations, fragments and dreams from Simic's notebooks. The entries afford us a glimpse of Simic's preoccupations and passions, in a more elemental form than in his finished poems. There are moments of rare beauty and insight throughout." --Newpages, November 3, 2008

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Ausable Press (September 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931337403
• ISBN-13: 978-1931337403
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #517,159 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

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not poetry per se, but rather the stuff from which great poetry (or great prose) can be wrought, November 13, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Monster Loves His Labyrinth (Paperback)

Yugoslavia-born U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic presents The Monster Loves His Labyrinth: Notebooks, an amalgamation of his notebook entries over the course of many years. The observations, insights, and inspirational gleanings are not themselves poetry per se, but rather the stuff from which great poetry (or great prose) can be wrought - or perhaps a simple source of thoughtful contemplation, ideal for whenever one has a few minutes to spare. "We call 'street wise' someone who knows how to look, listen, and interpret the teeming life around him. To walk down a busy city block is a critical act. Literature, aesthetics, and psychology all come into play."

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pre-poetry notes and free associations., July 5, 2010

By 

Gary Sprandel (Frankfort, Kentucky) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Monster Loves His Labyrinth (Paperback)

This collection of short sentences or phrases contains thoughts of Yugoslavian born, poet, Simic and quotes from others on poetry, being Simic and being human, in insomnia, and religion. Some examples:
* I explained by accent to a doctor by telling him that I was raided by a family of deaf-mutes.
* I'm a member of that minority which refuses to be part of any officially designated minority.
* Birds sing to remind us that we have a soul.
* All my life I strove to make a small truth out of an infinity of errors.
* Cioran writes "God is afraid of man . . . . Man in a monster, and history has proved it.",
* How do you know the other? By being madly in Love.
* A poem is an invitation to a voyage. As in life we travel to see fresh sights.
* In a zoo, I noticed many animals who had a fleeting resemblance to me.
* Faulkner somewhere defined poetry as the whole history of the human heart on a head of a pin.
* Insomnia. A lifelong dereliction of duty. A form of rebellion against the whole of eternity. A spit in its eye, as it were.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Monster Loves, December 25, 2009

By 

Yugo Lalla "Yugo" (Whittier, NC) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Monster Loves His Labyrinth (Paperback)

This is an excellent book about poetry and Charles Simic's views on poetry, life and the world. Simic is perceptive beyond the normal individual and puts his thoughts into sharp and funny relief. For those who are poets, this is an inspiring book that will help you reach beyond your usual assumptions into a realm of free thought and feeling.
James Cox, Author of Hiding Behind the Elephant's Smile: Prose Poems and Poetic Prose