Mark Doty's prose has been hailed as "tempered and tough, sorrowing and serene" (The New York Times Book Review) and "achingly beautiful" (The Boston Globe). In Still Life with Oysters and Lemon he offers a stunning exploration of our attachment to ordinary things-how we invest objects with human store, and why.
Still Life with Oysters and Lemon: On Objects and Intimacy
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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Although at first glance this slim volume appears to be a quick read, it should be lingered over and reread to uncover the full depth of its beauty and insight. Combining memoir with artistic and philosophical musings, the poet and National Book Critics Circle Award winner (for My Alexandria) begins by confessing his obsession with the 17th-century Dutch still life that serves as the title of this book. As he analyzes the items depicted in the painting, he skillfully introduces his thoughts on our intimate relationships to objects and subsequently explains how they are often inextricably bound to the people and places of an individual lifetime. Further defined by imperfections attained from use, each object from an aging oak table to a chipped blue and white china platter forms a springboard for reflection. Doty intersperses personal reminiscences throughout, but he always returns to the subject of still-life painting and its silent eloquence. Doty's observations on balance, grief, beauty, space, love, and time are imparted with wisdom and poetic grace. This little book is a gem. For circulating libraries. Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, NJ
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Books like this, that address the sources of creation and the sources of our humanness, come along once in a decade. -Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times
"This small book is as wise, sensitive, intense, and affecting as anything I have read in recent years." -Doris Grumbach, author of Fifty Days of Solitude
"A gem." -Library Journal
"Mark Doty's prose is insistently exploratory, yet every aside, every detour, turns into pertinence, and it all seems effortless, as though the author were wondering, and marveling, aloud." -Bernard Cooper, author of Truth Serum
"A dazzling accomplishment, its radiance bred of lucid attention and acute insight. The subject is the profoundly personal act of perception translated into description. Doty succeeds in rendering this most contemplative of arts-the still life-into a riveting drama." -Patricia Hampl, author of I Could Tell You Stories
"This small book is as wise, sensitive, intense, and affecting as anything I have read in recent years." -Doris Grumbach, author of Fifty Days of Solitude
"A gem." -Library Journal
"Mark Doty's prose is insistently exploratory, yet every aside, every detour, turns into pertinence, and it all seems effortless, as though the author were wondering, and marveling, aloud." -Bernard Cooper, author of Truth Serum
"A dazzling accomplishment, its radiance bred of lucid attention and acute insight. The subject is the profoundly personal act of perception translated into description. Doty succeeds in rendering this most contemplative of arts-the still life-into a riveting drama." -Patricia Hampl, author of I Could Tell You Stories
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
30 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Mark Doty begins this book by describing a 350 year old Dutch painting "Still Life with Oysters and Lemon" that he has fallen in love with at the Metropolitan Museum. He then meanders to memories of his "Mamaw" from long ago in East Tennessee-- surely only Southerners call grandparents by that name-- to a poem by Cavafy, to buying an old Italianate Victorian House in Vermont with his partner who later died of AIDS. Along the way, Mr. Doty muses on the subject of balance: the desire to be in a relationship and the need to be free, the balance of order versus clutter, of staying rooted in one place and the need to travel-- and the joy of collecting simple, everyday imperfect things picked up in flea markets rather than perfect expensive objects.
There are so many good things to say about this little 70 page gem that one hardly knows where to begin. Too often I read a work of nonfiction and wish it had remained a short magazine article. That is not so with this book. I wanted it to go on and on. Whether or not the author is correct in his analysis of still life painting, he is completely convincing. Of course, his language is always both concise and beautiful and never gets in the way of what he is saying. Near the end of the book Mr. Doty says "What makes a poem a poem, finally, is that it is unparaphrasable. . . I may try to explain it or represent it in other terms, but then some element of its life will always be missing. It is the same with painting." Such a statement perfectly describes this little masterpiece.
28 of 30 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Mark Doty has done the impossible. In STILL LIFE WITH OYSTERS AND LEMON he has not only written an extended essay (read epic poem) about his encounter with a simple Dutch Still Life painting, but he has also produced what must become the definitive map for looking, seeing, studying and describing the essence of art in a way that encourages us all to return to the pursuit of beauty. Doty has proved his credentials in art hisory and art technique so that he is able to find the essence of a still life, rhapsodize on the quality of light as captured by an everyday object that makes a centuries old painting seem immediate to our own home, and in doing so reveals his own history of memories, lovers, favorite objects, the passage of time as participants in the transitory moment we call life. So many art critics and art historians have attempted to find this plane of understanding and enlightment with only minimal degrees of success. As a curator and essayist about art I am humbled and in awe. Mark Doty is one of the finest poets in America today and knows his way with words, with phrases that illuminate his stances, with defining emotions inaudible to most of us. But this small book is more than an homage to a particular still life painting (though on that merit alone he wins the competition!). This is a tender, thoughtful journey toward discovering beauty that daily surrounds us, a call to accept the transitory nature in all things and to experience them while we may. No fatalism here, just a door opened to appreciate the cycle of being alive...which just happens to warmly include the aspect of dying as part of that totality.... Read more ›
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is such a timely book for me because I was watching one of the plethora of decorating shows on tv one slow day, while cleaning and kept asking myself why so many homes by decorators have items that have no personal or deeply held memories for the people they are decorating for.
Its as if in this materialistic world we Americans live in, we see homes with 'filler' stuff. Stuff which is meant to make the place look special like in a magazine.
Thus I stood back and savored the pieces we have in our home and reminded myself of what Sister Wendy's works on art and artists had reminded me, which was to be still and realllllly look at a piece if art. Ponder the person who created it. Look at that painting and see the hidden treasures within it.
A book to love.
Its as if in this materialistic world we Americans live in, we see homes with 'filler' stuff. Stuff which is meant to make the place look special like in a magazine.
Thus I stood back and savored the pieces we have in our home and reminded myself of what Sister Wendy's works on art and artists had reminded me, which was to be still and realllllly look at a piece if art. Ponder the person who created it. Look at that painting and see the hidden treasures within it.
A book to love.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Ann Scott
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Wow what a book! As an artist myself I swooned over the entire opening when Mr. Doty describes being overtaken by the painting. Every artist longs for someone to be so smitten. Overall this book is such a rare treat in the seamless merging of art & poetry. I'm not sure where in this small treasure the switch was flipped for me from I'm-reading-a-book to I've never read a poem like this. It seems everything became a still life after his experience with the painting, every object thoughtfully pondered, every event given a new view. I don't think I've ever read a better description of light and clearly (thankfully) he got caught in it's magic. Thank you Mr. Doty for such a beautiful book!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Sanjeev Naik
Format:Paperback
In addition to fostering an appreciation of still life paintings in me, this book lit up my senses with the poetry of it all. Mark Doty, whose poems I have read and loved previously, has written a short book here that I could not stop reading. Every line I wanted to read and re-read to savor. Every line I wanted to mark or transcribe to enjoy again later. Like the painting masters he lauds, Mark is a peerless artist with words! What a joy -- full of the grace of life - this book was!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Good seller, boring book
Ugh, can you say sappy? I thought for a second that this was written by Nora Roberts....what a snooze fest!
Published 2 months ago by Ani Sepekoff
1.0 out of 5 stars
Too precious for words, or Dilettantissimo
Even the self-parodying Oscar Wilde, I feel, knew the difference in his heart between art and artiness. The joke was on us. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Simon G. Barrett
5.0 out of 5 stars
Loving, loving, loving this gem of a book!
I teach literature at an art school, and I'm reading this to add to a proposed course I want to teach. I am an author of fiction and also an artist--illustrator and painter. Read more
Published 21 months ago by C.M. Stine
2.0 out of 5 stars
Art History Buffs Only
If you are not HUGELY into art history, theory, or painting, this will probably not be a very enjoyable read. Read more
Published 22 months ago by Hermes Trismestigus
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still Life with Oysters
I thought this book came in great condition for being "used". It looked like brand new, I am very satisfied with my Amazon purchase.
Published on January 27, 2011 by Hawaiian Plumeria
3.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing, but perhaps only because it comes very close
I found Doty's work to be disappointing. Mostly this is due to the fact that I think the ideas in the essay are wonderful. Read more
Published on January 16, 2010 by J Charles
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Book.
This was a well written book. Very moving! Makes you stand back, and take another look at still life.
Published on March 10, 2007 by Robin Shaker
