Customer Reviews

"a"

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Zukofsky's "A" isn't for the timid--it's long, after all--and it's not for those who don't want to give their minds and ears a workout--in other words, it's difficult, and doesn't sound like...well, like Robert Pinsky, or Robert Frost. But for readers who are patient enough to let the peerless music of the verse sink in, and who don't demand that poetry give them a prepackaged "message," "A" offers a wonderful range of pleasures. It's a long poem in as many forms as you can imagine, from Shakespearean sonnets, to letter-perfect canzoni, to phonetic translations from the Hebrew. It's a poem that tracks 50 years in the life of its writer and 50 years of American history, from the Depression through the space race. It makes the most wonderful sound of any book in English since Joyce's *Ulysses*.

This poem is incredible.

"A" is a must read for any reader serious about poetry, literary aesthetics, or modern thought. Zukofsky incorporates immense ideas into his work, and keeps the reader challenged. But though the poem is highly cerebral, it's not just a poem for scholars and academicians. It's emotional and beautiful as well as stimulating. Even if you don't have the time or energy to read all of "A", read bits and pieces of it. You will be caught up in the language. You will be amazed. Read it at leisure, study it, or keep it on your bookshelf for years at a time. You will most definitely get something out of it. Readers who like "The Cantos" will most likely enjoy this as well. It is fantastic.

Not only is this justifiably regarded as one of the most important long poems of the 20th Century, it is one of the most enjoyable of them. People say Zukofsky is difficult, but he's not so difficult if one listens: "The ears have it." Zukofsky says a poem offers pleasure by means of "sight, sound, and intellection." That's one key in to this work. Another is to notice that this is perhaps the first American long poem, at least in its first half or more, that offers a leftist/Marxist perspective. Another is that it lets us see an important Jewish poet finding his place as American and modernist/postmodernist. These are real dramas that can be found in *A.* Another key to reading *A* is to enjoy Zukofsky's intense pleasure in everyday, family life. There are ways in which this great poem is accessible to all readers. Finding one's way in can require patience, but more than anything, it simply requires an act of listening with open ears and mind.

It's entirely clear from reading "A", the pathetic book over which Louis Zukofsky labored for his entire life, that the man was quite demented. This book is an awful disease, which I've cured after reading all tedious 800+ pages of it with heavy doses of the great masters of postmodern American verse: David Lehman, Robert Lowell, and Galway Kinnell. No one should ever be forced to read "A" unless he's comitted an awful crime.