Nerve Storm ( Penguin Poets) [Mass Market Paperback]

Amy Gerstler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1997

In her first collection since Bitter Angel , which won the 1991 National Book Critics Circle Award, Gerstler continues her intense, and often savage, pursuit of redemption through suffering. At times pain is caused by illness (scarlet fever, tuberculosis), at times by man's inhumanity to man (the Holocaust; bodies are recovered from an unspecified explosion). Past and present blur as one speaker is followed through various reincarnations in a single poem. A cow lazily chewing grass insists that "Prior to this promotion/ I was the town drunk." Her best poems are relentless, soul-searching, surreal and wonderfully inexplicable. But less than half this volume displays vintage Gerstler. At their weakest, her poems are formulaic and contrived, as when she catalogues matriarchal saints for modern times ("Our lady of organ transplants./ Our lady of the power lunch"). A five-page poem about insect collecting (possibly a "found" poem lifted from various manuals) is pointless. Most damaging is her ability to trivialize the same themes she presents so potently elsewhere, as when the speaker of one poem gives instructions on survival to a potentially homeless person. Whether a poem is sympathizing or mocking, the meter and the poet's distanced gaze remain the same, frequently leaving readers uncertain of the poet's intentions.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her first collection since Bitter Angel , which won the 1991 National Book Critics Circle Award, Gerstler continues her intense, and often savage, pursuit of redemption through suffering. At times pain is caused by illness (scarlet fever, tuberculosis), at times by man's inhumanity to man (the Holocaust; bodies are recovered from an unspecified explosion). Past and present blur as one speaker is followed through various reincarnations in a single poem. A cow lazily chewing grass insists that "Prior to this promotion/ I was the town drunk." Her best poems are relentless, soul-searching, surreal and wonderfully inexplicable. But less than half this volume displays vintage Gerstler. At their weakest, her poems are formulaic and contrived, as when she catalogues matriarchal saints for modern times ("Our lady of organ transplants./ Our lady of the power lunch"). A five-page poem about insect collecting (possibly a "found" poem lifted from various manuals) is pointless. Most damaging is her ability to trivialize the same themes she presents so potently elsewhere, as when the speaker of one poem gives instructions on survival to a potentially homeless person. Whether a poem is sympathizing or mocking, the meter and the poet's distanced gaze remain the same, frequently leaving readers uncertain of the poet's intentions.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In an almost prosy rhythm, Gerstler spins tales of modern life where milk curdles, toxic gases blow, and good men are hard to find. Gerstler, a 1991 National Book Critics Circle Award winner for Bitter Angel (North Point Pr., 1990), writes poems about death, disease, finding a mate, and hypochondria, as well as the more whimsical "The Mermaid's Purse," which ends with a question: "how can the oceans/ swallow so much color/ and remain so terrifically blue?" Gerstler succeeds best when her metaphors surprise: In "Rest Cure" she compares kissing to "a bee drowned/ in a cup of tea." Humor and a wry self-knowledge surface often, particularly in "Dear Rage Management Supervisor" and "Daughter of Eve." Still, the poems that remain with the reader aren't the clever ones but those where the emotion runs deep, particularly "The Stretcher-Bearers," where the poet compares a field of boys' corpses to a string of pearls become unstrung. What one longs for is more music. For large collections of contemporary poetry.
- Doris Lynch, Oakland P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); First Edition edition (March 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140587039
• ISBN-13: 978-0140587036
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,258,249 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.