Placebo Effects: Poems (National Poetry Series) [Hardcover]

Jeanne Marie Beaumont (Author)

Book Description

Series: National Poetry Series | Publication Date: October 1997

Winner of the 1996 National Poetry Series, judged and selected by William Matthews.

In this dynamic first collection, Jeanne Marie Beaumont navigates the dusky waters between opposites in a voice that is imbued with a mix of quirky self-consciousness and graceful, perceptive consciousness. The tension between these two voices results in a deftly energetic cadence that lifts the poems off the page. Placebo Effects examines the communal and the intimate: whether considering medicine and mysticism, celebrating a commonplace object, eavesdropping on a provocative conversation, or enjoying the eerie and exquisite privacy of falling asleep.

Beaumont's precise and curious attention to the world and to her own use of language proclaim the arrival of an exceptional talent.
-- "Jeanne Marie Beaumont's poems are smart and full of feeling, heartbrokenly in love with the snares and clarities of the language she writes in, and lit throughout by a kind of wry wonder. Here's a first volume to celebrate". -- William Matthews

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this first volume, a strong new voice full of wit and clarity offers a richness of language, a pleasure taken in the act of description. Beaumont's themes are often chosen with the same zeal a young couple she describes share for a "magic" and evidently quite costly rug. It is "chosen not with taste/ but hunger itself for the tale/ the weaver works into each carpet." And each poem works its way not as a pronouncement on a particular state of affairs but enacts the gestures described in a physical, material way. A poem entitled "City" performs its subject like a kind of rheostat: "Out of the great blasted hole?/ which had shaken their bearing walls,/ which had drilled them from sleep?/ it reached, square upon square,/ where all that could happen would happen,/ faithful to the blueprint." With a cool, determined eye, Beaumont divulges the troublesome secret: as with all things, this "city" is soon taken for granted, and its inhabitants are found "writing the return address/ as though it always existed." Recommended for large poetry collections.?Steven R. Ellis, Pennsylvania State Univ. Libs., University Park
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

All of the high spirits, deep feeling, and wide wordwitchery that we expect from poetry are here in Jeanne Marie Beaumont's book--but a strict (and eccentric) formal consciousness fixes this dazzlement in place with pins of exactitude. One poem's speaker says 'there is no danger/of running out of material.' That's good news for the fans "Placebo Effects" will create. -- Albert Goldbarth

Arrangement
Barometrics
Childhood Of The Invisible Woman
City
Commerce
Continuing City
Contrariwise
Demure
Domestic Diary
Excavation
Female Navigation (1818)
The First Red Place
Found City
Frangipani
Gilt-edged Mirror
Journey
Judging The Book By Its Cover
The Last Blue Place
A Lesson: 1. Vocabulary
A Lesson: 2. Multiple Choice
A Lesson: 3. Conversationally Speaking
Magic Carpet
More Raw Data
Mr. Ripley Writes A Preface
Mrs. Ripley Gets It Off Her Chest
Objects In The Eye Are Closer Than They Appear
One
The Others
Pearl Hour
Photographing The Dols
Placebo Effects
Proxy
Road Trip
Rorschach
Shoe Speaks From Experience
Sleeping In Your House
Still
Stratum Corneum
Two Bowls: The Fish Speak
Two Bowls: The Woman Speaks
The Valley Of My Attention
Vase
Visual Field Test
Writ Of Ritual
The Yellow Dress
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Imagine Alice swapping tales with Scheherazade in the late twentieth century and you have some idea of what Jeanne Marie Beaumont is up to. Every perceptive moment is an adventure and nothing is to be taken for granted. Fearless yet droll, she trusts the imagination as an arbiter of whatever grace we find in this world, and she exults in the pursuit of some very hard puzzlements. She is captivating. -- Baron Wormser

Jeanne Marie Beaumont's poems are smart and full of feeling, heartbrokenly in love with the snares and clarities of the language she writes in, and lit throughout by a kind of wry wonder. Here's a first volume to celebrate. -- William Matthews

The genius of "Placebo Effects" is a paradox: tactful but uncompromised paradox. Nothing is simple and everything is clear. The American composer Charles Ives honored Emerson for having 'accomplished the impossible in attempting it and still leaving it impossible.' Honor is likewise owing to Jeanne Marie Beaumont, our new poet of transcendent daring. -- Donald Revell

There is nothing imaginary in the salutary joy of reading "Placebo Effects." It is varied and lush, vigorous and charming. It is a multilayered harmony of observation and imagination, where the unknown is recognizable, the known is made magical....Like all great things, these poems reminded me of other treasures: intimate worlds which have always been there but are often forgotten. -- Literal Latte, May/June 1998

This collection of beguiling poems, one of the five winners of the 1996 National Poetry Series, takes as its avenue into experience the palpable, quotidian objects of the intimate environment.... There is something of the child's wondrous way of seeing the world that electrifies Beaumont's point of view, the way a child might see a group of children on their sleds in a snowy Currier and Ives scene on a lampshade, and wishes he could slide too, when all an adult sees is the burnt-out lightbulb. -- Boston Globe, David Mehegan, 1 October 1997

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 86 pages
• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc; 1st edition (October 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039304128X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393041286
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,237,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jeanne Marie Beaumont was born and raised in the Philadelphia suburbs and moved to New York City in 1983. She is author of three books of poetry and currently teaches at the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y and in the Stonecoast MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Gem of a Book, July 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Placebo Effects: Poems (Paperback)

It is rare to come upon a contemporary collection of poetry, let alone a first book, that is as intelligent, exquisitely crafted, and profoundly moving as Placebo Effects. Any reader who loves poetry and is disappointed by the proliferation of ordinary writing will be thrilled with this splendid book and will instantly become a fan of Jeanne Marie Beaumont. Highly recommended.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Poet To Watch, February 2, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Placebo Effects: Poems (Paperback)

Jeanne Marie Beaumont's Placebo Effects is one of the best books of poems I have read in recent years. Beaumont's work is intelligent, experimental, playful, and always satisfying. She is a poet to watch. I predict that we'll be hearing much more about her in the future.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Stunning Work of Importance!, November 12, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Placebo Effects: Poems (National Poetry Series) (Hardcover)

Ms. Beaumont has risen to the challenge of documenting the postmodern of our everyday lives in this intelligent and profound book. The poems in Placebo Effects will reverberate through the centuries. Buy this book and be blessed with a unique inspiration!