SAVING LIVES: POEMS [Paperback]

ALBERT GOLDBARTH (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hard on the heels of the poetry of Beyond (1998) and Troubled Lovers in History (1999), and almost simultaneous with Many Circles: New and Selected Essays which follows 1999's Dark Waves and Light Matter: Essays comes this umpteenth volume of Goldbarth poems. Like all his work, it's talky, exuberant and packed with trivia and discoveries in fields from archaeology to old radio shows to Judaica. Goldbarth moves easily from big, serious, personal topics his friends' divorces and near-divorces, his mother's cancer to quirky phrases and delightful facts: P.T. Barnum, "a sterling example/ of willed bizarritude," illuminates "our own belabored piffles of imagination," the "Power of Weirdness" to be found in "woven radish baskets, bobbered fishing skeins, and god dolls." Here is a poem about insect bodies, "spoken by a plaque at Scenic View"; there is a sequence (among his best) based on "The Hardy Boys' Detective Handbook." Here is "schoolboy humor" about bras and panties, illuminating (among other conjoined stories) the life of Goldbarth's refugee "Great-Auntie Yetta"; there is a long poem (a flop) about a great library, and another (a winner) about everything that takes place on his 50th birthday. Like all his books, this one repeats motifs detection and detective stories, radio, Rembrandt, aged relatives; these motifs let many poems focus on questions about dual, or hidden, identities or lives. Goldbarth's poems do not offer the concentration, the once-and-for-all rightness, of most lyric: mostly they are lineated essays, meant, tender, personal and fun. (May)Forecast: With the Goldbarth market glutted, and with this book's few departures and modest imprimatur, its primary audience will probably be the shelves of university libraries unless buyers there wait for the inevitable selected or collected.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Ever the imagination's paleontologist, Goldbarth (Beyond: Poems) continues to unearth the infinitely odd, amazing bits of historical fact and fiction that argue for irony and coincidence as primary laws of nature. Thick and sometimes unkempt with the excitement of telling ("the pulse in the body that wants more/ than its single human lifetime"), his poems teem like drops of pond water viewed under a microscope: movement everywhere, almost too much to assimilate, and yet "there are continuums/ connecting the most striking pairs of opposites." So multilayered and varied is the poet's apprehension of life that the ceaseless acquisition of knowledge only serves to deepen its mystery. No wonder Goldbarth's favorite subjects are alchemists, the likes of Houdini and Barnum ("a sterling example of willed bizarritude"), and the early astronomers, whose cosmic theories repeatedly overturned the basic assumptions of their times. Generously intelligent, Goldbarth's own "zestily done humbuggeries" remind us that reading is no less an act of discovery and creative preservation than writing. Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Ohio State University Press; 1 edition (March 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814250734
• ISBN-13: 978-0814250730
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,205,318 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Life This Book Saves May Be Your Own, May 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: SAVING LIVES: POEMS (Paperback)

Albert Goldbarth proves once again that he is one of the undersung masters of American poetry.Saving Lives is easily his best poetry collection since Heaven and Earth: A Cosmology which came out nearly ten years ago. With the opening poem "Library" and through middle ground such as "Her Literal One," Goldbarth weaves a spell of love, magic, and humor. If you've never before dipped into Goldbarth's work, Saving Lives is a great place to start. Though the poet is probably best known for his longer narrative poems and his love of the planets and stars, both become muted here: these are shorter poems than what readers might be used to though their length compromises none of the typical Goldbarthian fire. And while Goldbarth hasn't abandoned his love of hard science and sci fi and all things in between, the poems in this volume stay mostly rooted on earth, focusing on what keeps the human heart beating.

5.0 out of 5 stars Goldbarth Does it Again!, October 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: SAVING LIVES: POEMS (Paperback)

Simply put, this is a wonderful book, a great addition to any library and a must for any reader interested in Goldbarth's work and his impact on contemporary poetry.

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This won the National Book Critics Circle Award?, June 16, 2002

By 

[e-mail] "[e-mail]" (Beaumont, tx USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: SAVING LIVES: POEMS (Paperback)

This is just the type of book that wins these types of awards. Goldbarth's poems tend to be prosey and verbose. He has some good ideas behind the poems, and a few good lines. But that isn't what we read poetry for--ideas. Where are the images that can't be forgotten? Where is the play that language does so well? This is a poet like Jorie Graham, one who tries to say something, then gets bogged down with free association. There is some good stuff in the poems, but as a whole they are a let down. The opening poem, "Library" happens to be a poem where this works, but it is a list poem, and you can get a little wordy in those. The book runs a little long for a poetry collection (over 120 pages). Goldbarth could have used a good editor cull it some.