The Tunnel: Selected Poems of Russell Edson [Paperback]

Russell Edson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1994

Russell Edson's prose poems constitute some of the most original American art of the 20th century. Like the boxes of Joseph Cornell, each is a miniature world, eerie in its logic, unsettling in its ruthless fun, dazzling in its invention. Much of Edson's corpus has been out of print or difficult to find for some time now. This new selection offers his own favorites from seven previous collections, restoring Edson to his large and international audience and introducing him to new readers who are committed to what is truly original and illuminating in language, imagination, and poetry.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Tunnel selects from nearly three decades of writing by the perversely unique Russell Edson, who occupies a closet in the house of American poetry that most readers (and writers) dare not even open.... A magnificent book. The microscopic precision and intuitive leaps evident throughout the book confirm that Edson is not merely an offbeat original but a profound contemporary poet deserving of wider recognition" -- Rain Taxi

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Oberlin College Press (January 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0932440657
• ISBN-13: 978-0932440655
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 8.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,795 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

For decades, Russell Edson has been producing a body of work unique in perspective and singular in approach.  His books include The Very Thing That Happens (New Directions, 1964); The Childhood of an Equestrian (Harper & Row, 1973); The Falling Sickness,

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great selection of odd, dark prose poems, July 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tunnel: Selected Poems of Russell Edson (Paperback)

Edson is one of the most prominent poets working in the field of prose poetry; this collection contains some of his best work from many different books. The poems are short and often have a dark and absurdist feel to them, as in "The Damaged Ape" wherein a family discovers that the ape they recently bought has defects when a little piece of its nostril falls off. This is probably my favorite poetry book, I highly recommend it. There are some good web pages about Edson where you can read some of his work; he is IMHO one of the best-kept secrets in modern poetry.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great fun, and sometimes profound, February 3, 2001

By 

Matthew Cheney (New Hampton, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tunnel: Selected Poems of Russell Edson (Paperback)

Don't let yourself get all tangled in the arguments over what is and isn't a prose poem, or even if such an oxymoronic creature is possible. It doesn't matter what you call them, these things by Russell Edson are great fun and great reading.

Most of these pieces are about a page long, and many are considerably shorter. They are moments of dreams, newsreels from some surreal purgatory, portraits of impossibility. In this world, "Mr Is went into the woods to think about his wooden head," and "A woman had given birth to an old man." Within the oddity and amidst the strangeness are moments of tenderness, passion, horror. Read slowly and carefully, these words somehow seem to reflect the world we trudge through and the life we lead, and so add contours to our boring reality. There is a lot of melancholy here; it comes perhaps from the confusions and juxtapositions, but there is nothing to fear, and plenty to love, for, as Edson writes, "In such a world there is much sadness which, of course, is joy..."

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Broadly accessible prose poems, rewarding, and unique., July 15, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tunnel: Selected Poems of Russell Edson (Paperback)

I read this book with a poetry reading book club and it was one of the club's favorites. Edson writes often surreal philosophical fables which are easy to enter into because of their familiar, "There once was a woman who..." language. However, this river runs deep.