Most Way Home: Poems [Paperback]

Kevin Young (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1998

Encompassing America's African-American landscape and rich oral histories of the South, a poetry collection centers on the concept of ""home"" and explores conflicts between black and white, North and South, ancestral and modern.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

A 1993 National Poetry Series selection, this harsh volume explores "home" as a place in the collective African American memory. Many of these poems are children's painful narratives of the rural South; one section entitled "The Spectacle" details freak show attractions from a local fair. A final section, "Beyond the Pale," moves beyond collective memory to contemporary ironies, combining the black oral tradition with strains of the dead white masters (Auden, for example): "See, in the end the tragedy is all/in the telling, not at the moment when the gator/slips out of Ched Peeling's trusty, thoroughbred/hands & gobbles down a few select/youngsters." While the poet's descriptions of poverty and suffering are vivid and moving, the poems grow stronger as they move beyond a conventional mix of nostalgia and rage to a more thoughtful and transcendent vision: "things do/not need me here, this world/dances on its own." A promising first work.
Ellen Kaufman, Dewey Ballantine Law Lib., New York
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

First books rarely sing with such controlled music. Young, selected for the National Poetry series by Lucille Clifton, has a distinctive and unforgettable voice, virtuosic style, and mature command of his material. From the first poem--ironically melodic quatrains recording the advertisement of a reward for escaped slaves--Young engages the material of African American history the way Yeats did Irish history and Garc{¡}ia Marquez the history of Latin American economic colonization. That is, he engages and transforms it with his language and compassion. Any of these poems testifies to Young's genius. Take "How to Make Rain," an incantatory instruction for deepest prayer, with its ever-varying, rolling quasirefrain; here's one variation: "rain of our / fathers shoeless rain the devil is / beating his wife rain rain learned / early in the bones." A marvelous book, a marvelous poet. Patricia Monaghan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Zoland Books (June 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581950217
• ISBN-13: 978-1581950212
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.2 x 8.5 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: #1,945,763 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kevin Young is the author of six books of poetry, most recently Dear Darkness, named one of the Best Books of 2008 by National Public Radio's All Things Considered, and winner of the Southern Independent Booksellers Alliance Award in poetry. His book Jelly Roll: A Blues was a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and won the Paterson Poetry Prize. He is the editor of four other volumes, including Blues Poems, Jazz Poems, and the Library of America's John Berryman: Selected Poems. The curator of literary collections and the Raymond Danowski Poetry Library and Atticus Haygood Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, Young lives in Boston and Atlanta.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lyrical account of African-American history & great poetry., August 4, 2000

By 

Dennis Etzel Jr. (In the center of the USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Most Way Home: Poems (Paperback)

Kevin Young's first book Most Way Home was selected by Lucille Clifton to win the National Poetry Series contest for good reason. It has sold out in hardback and first printing paperback for good reason. Kevin Young continues to be a leader in American Contemporary Poetry for good reason. The reason being: the excellent use of language, combined with history (both public and private), to break boundaries poetry and story-telling each create. I have read this book many times over and share it at open-mic poetry nights. The way the words fall off the tongue is beautiful. There is a natural flow in each poem, that if disected, would destroy the beauty. This is one of my top ten favorite books and highly recommend it for both pleasure and study.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kevin's Down Home Vibe, January 29, 2002

By 

Erren Geraud Kelly - See all my reviews

This review is from: Most Way Home (The National Poetry Series) (Hardcover)

loads of oral tradition and african folklore can be found in his work. the poems are short and seem simple, but they aren't. by taking the personal, he makes it universal for anyone who chooses to go down the rabbit hole .i see alot of down south and louisiana in his work. no matter how far away i go, i will never be totally free of it.the poems ' reward ' and ' how to make rain ' are worth the price of the book. highly reccomended...

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kevin Young takes poetry to a better place., February 9, 1999

By 

Dennis Etzel Jr. (In the center of the USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Most Way Home (Paperback)

This poetry is better than poetry. Borrowing on experience, both personal and American, Mr. Young breaks the painted-over windows to let the elements pour into reality's room. It is a formal experimentation of how to words can naturally surface to the top. Basquiat would be proud!!