Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form [Paperback]

Matthea Harvey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2000

Comic, elegaic, and always formally intricate, using political allegory and painterly landscape, philosophic story and dramatic monologue, these poems describe a moment when something marvelous and unforeseen alters the course of a single day, a year, or an entire life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The fussy title of Harvey's distinctive, substantial debut gives a pretty good idea of the Victorian-style cathexes within, swooning with "Objective Fatigue" and clutching "More Sketches for a Beautiful Hat." Many poems issue from a space of Wonderland-like decadence, where "tiny tin gutters would be gauche,/ pathetically mimetic" and "irritated he would play with his/ Chameleon putting her on a paisley pillow or tartan/ Scarf." There is a foreboding to such scenes, and a toughness to Harvey's speakers: one "can't be coy after all I've done" and another has "killed one pride only to have another replace it." Pervasive longings are often compressed into a verbal device Harvey may have imported from Turkish poetry, in which the start of a line (here always unpunctuated) is at once the end of one sentence and the start of the next: "this village is closer to the glacier than/ The volcano emits a tiny rumble & drools lava every few/ Years go by..." It's used too often, but the people and pursuits within the poems as a whole certainly vary: a male poet proceeds from the "Vestibulum" to the "Frigidarium" to find his muse within domestic "Thermae"; "Frederick Courtney Selous" exhorts a lover to make a necklace of the stamps from his letters; one poor lover of the title poem casts a bathtub for his beloved only to burn his feetAall with the craft and care of miniature portraiture. While the results, despite watchful self-inoculation, can be precious, the imagination and syntactic dexterity they display are remarkable. (Nov.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Flecked with color and taking lively twists and turns, this first collection displays a rather remarkable breadth. All of the poems are well wrought, displaying verbal acuity and an over-arching structure that lands the reader in the most unexpected places. Such is the case in "Letting Go," which depicts the desire to hold onto the bell pull and to "go clanging up into the sky." The title poem stands out for its humor and the philosophical distinction between the vessel and its contents: "Whenever we want we can pull the plug and get out/ Which is not the case with our own tighter confinement/ Inside the body oh pity the bathtub but pity us too." Highly recommended.DAnn K. van Buren, Riverdale Country Sch., New York
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 68 pages
• Publisher: Alice James Books; 1st edition (2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1882295269
• ISBN-13: 978-1882295265
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #284,781 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matthea Harvey's most recent book of poetry, Modern Life, won the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and was a New York Times Notable Book of 2008 as well as a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. She is the author of two previous books of poetry, Sad Little Breathing Machine and Pity the Bathtub Its Forced Embrace of the Human Form, as well as a forthcoming children's book, The Little General and the Giant Snowflake, illustrated by Elizabeth Zechel. A contributing editor to jubilat, BOMB and Meatpaper, she teaches poetry at Sarah Lawrence and lives in Brooklyn.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Well worth reading--from a lone non-relative in the west April 1, 2001

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I am an avid reader of poetry, and Matthea Harvey's book is one of the best I've encountered in the past five years or so (at least). Her innovative work with form and syntax allows for both remarkable fluidity and sharp complexity. I have been getting to know her poems--at times reading them straight through for the sheer pleasure of the rhythmic and dramatic build, and at times focusing in on the rich,interconnecting layers. Her poems manage to do many things at once--and successfully. They are both fierce and delicate, playful and serious, emotional and intellectual, light-hearted and searingly intense--and I imagine this may cause jealous sparks from those who are incapable of navigating the territory of sharp and playful contradiction. But it seems to me that the two dissenting reviewers of this collection have more of a personal stake in the matter than the positive reviewers whose opinions they attack. I have never had the pleasure of meeting Miss Harvey, and I am not in the habit of writing internet reviews. But the dissenting voices smacked far too much of professional envy, rather than rigorous thought, and I loved this collection far too much to let their words stand uncontested.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best first book in three years December 2, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

Little known Alice James Books is putting out some fine work, and Matthea Harvey's first book of poems is the best I've seen in three years of first books. Although Adam Kirsch may find _Pity_ repetitive, you should find out for yourself. All poets are repetitive, you have to like what they're doing. Best way to find out is to do a quick search for her on the Net and read a few of her poems.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars a playful yet moving debut November 24, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

When I first sat down to read this book, I was taken by the whimsicality and humor of the poems. There is nothing "usual" here -- rather, one is given a discontented queen in a bathtub, a boy floating above an Italian festival, a lion-hunter writing letters to his love. Harvey's use of language and imagery in these poems is both surprising and delightful.

Yet, despite Harvey's playfulness, there's something serious at the heart of this book. Many of these poems deal with loneliness and the isolation inherent in being human. There's a way in which the people in these poems reach out again and again to the reader, asking not for pity, but to be understood. Harvey's talent lies not just in the vivid images she evokes on the page, but also in the strength of the emotions she conveys in her silences. I found this a truly remarkable collection.