Music Minus One: Poems [Hardcover]

Jane Shore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1996

Using a structure similar to that of a novel, a new autobiographical collection of poetry begins in 1950s New Jersey in the author's hometown and covers such topics as her father's musical talent and playing, childhood, motherhood, life in Vermont, and her mother's death.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Shore's third collection (after Eye Level, winner of the Juniper Prize, and The Minute Hand, winner of the Lamont Poetry Prize) is a virtuoso performance. Working from an autobiographical base, she captures the nuances of an intense childhood lived as if every decision will be crucial for the lives of everyone around her. Many poems focus on laughable recollections?of the stuffed baby chick she was certain gave her chicken pox, of herself, a Jewish child singing a Christmas carol, of herself as a girl in a heat wave, topless in front of her father "for the very last time." Poems probing her transition from child to adult are less strong, but those focusing on motherhood, after the birth of her daughter, are powerful. Some of these poems pair a present image with one from the past with stunning results: her father's death with his teaching her as a child the combination to the safe in his store; her frail, terminally ill mother with the act of of constructing with her own young daughter the Visible Woman model kit. Picador's first volume of poetry is a winning collection.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Shore, whose earlier volume (The Minute Hand, Univ. of Massachusetts, 1987) won the coveted Lamont Poetry Prize, is one of the most accessible poets writing today. Reading her poetry is like having coffee with a talkative relative full of stories from the past. Shore has a wonderful knack for narrative and spins out her tales with moving, compelling richness. At times, the "prosy" nature of her stories leads the reader to wonder why she's arranged her work into verses?prose poems might have been more suitable. But then a flash of pure poetry emerges?"At low tide, the tidal bore's puddle-raked mud flats/ looked like a bolt of brown corduroy/ running down the coast"?and her prosier moments are forgiven. Shore writes of her vividly remembered New Jersey Jewish childhood and then brings us into her adulthood with poems of her Honolulu-born daughter: "my daughter, one day old, without a name,/ splayed naked under the lamps,/ soaking up the light of this world,/ a sad sunbather stretched out on Waikiki." Recommended.?Judy Clarence, California State Univ. Lib., Hayward
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 107 pages
• Publisher: Picador USA; 1st Picador USA ed edition (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312146868
• ISBN-13: 978-0312146863
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,887,389 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Reunion with Jane Shore, December 31, 2000

By 

Thelma Korpman (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Music Minus One: Poems (Hardcover)

I grew up down the street from Jane Shore and went to school with her, however, after reading her poems I realize that I never really knew her. "Music Minus One" opened up a flood of nostalgic memories for me of Jane, her parents, Bergenline Ave., the plane that crashed into the apartment house a block from where I grew up, and being Jewish in the 1950's. I knew Jane was talented but I didn't appreciate just how talented. I felt as if I was being reacquainted with an old friend who was now sharing her deepest thoughts with me. I haven't seen Jane in over 30 years but I feel like I just spent an afternoon with her. Her talent has reunited me with my past.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Book by a Wonderful Person, June 9, 2000

By 

Beth Michael "irishmommy29" (Washington D.C. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Music Minus One: Poems (Hardcover)

I had the pleasure of having dinner with Jane at the home of one my favorite professors. She had already published "Music Minus One" and she was in the process of writing "Happy Family." Not only are the poems in this collection beautiful, but the language she employs is a tribute to her artistry. She creates glorious imagery through sounds and reduces the pain of adolescence to a poignant and memborable symbol. Although I'm sure Jane has long forgotten the twelve students who huddled around her on a cold December night, none of us have forgotten her down-to-earth advice for new authors or her unforgettable presentation of her poetry.

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting memoir, but too prosy to be poetry, September 6, 2009

By 

Reader - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Music Minus One (Paperback)

A newspaper review quoted on this website says, regarding Jane Shore's "Music Minus One", that "at times, the 'prosy' nature of her stories leads the reader to wonder why she's arranged her work into verses --- prose poems might have been more suitable".

I couldn't agree more. I was drawn to the book by an interesting premise --- a memoir in poetry about the writer's experiences of childhood in the '50s and motherhood, complete with elegies to parents, etc. This idea was extremely appealing to me. But I soon saw the flaws mentioned in the review I've just mentioned --- while Shore's vignettes are compelling, and sometimes moving, there is an irritating 'prosiness' about her poems --- the sense that she just took prose fragments and broke them into stanzas.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

"My family admired the Dutch people; / they'd hidden Jews in their houses during the War. / Once, while I was playing with my tea set, / I heard my aunt Roz say the exact thing: / 'The Dutch hid Jews during the War'" ("Washing the Streets of Holland").

"That was the summer I had a job, baby-sitting / for a couple who'd had a baby late, at forty-two" ("Days of Awe").

"I loved to shop at the Five-and-Ten, / the Woolworth's on Bergenline, / a block away from my parents' store" ("The Five-and-Ten").

Poetry, for me, has to have that special extra thing, magic. The unusual or beautiful arrangement of words, the arresting image. That's what makes it different from prose --- and not just the fact that it's arranged into verses. And, while Jane Shore occasionally strikes that perfect note, there's not enough of that magic in this book, and too much of the type of sentence I have quoted above. So, for me at least, the collection was ultimately unsatisfying.

Two and a half stars.