Unbeliever (Brittingham Prize in Poetry) [Hardcover]

Lisa Lewis (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Readers of the book that won this year's Brittingham Prize will be reminded of Walt Whitman by these sometimes prosaic, long-lined poems. Echoes of his words resound: "I hate myself/ For ever believing I rocked my own cradle into being/ For the anger and strength and persistence/ I suffer myself to bear into the world." Yet though Lewis's first book may place her among Whitman's daughters, the hard-edged voice is all her own, and it does not falter as she considers the difficulties of female sexuality, gender and human isolation. Her lengthy narratives sometimes take a confessional tone, and they are almost obsessive in the attention they pay to life's details, rendering the mundane and the bizarre with equal care. The most memorable pieces are meditations on topics once taboo in poetry: a man overcoming his sexual dysfunction, a voyeur watching a stranger masturbate, an adolescent girl caught in sex-and-drugs exploits, a woman who craves to kill the wife-beater she spots in a restaurant. Guided by her best gifts, "anger and strength and persistence," Lewis prevails.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

The Accident
Bridget
Criticism
The Drive
Eclipse
February
Genesis
Grown Women
The Heart And The Symbol
The Innocent Embrace
The Mirror
Night Ride
Quadriplegics
Red Ribbon
Red Tulips
Responsibility
Revisions
Trains
True Confessions
The Unbeliever
The Urinating Man
The Visitor
While I'm Walking
-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder® --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 72 pages
• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press (November 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0299144003
• ISBN-13: 978-0299144005
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,935,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Queen of the Flat & Steady Gaze, August 28, 2000

By 

Private Citizen "PC" (Oxford MS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unbeliever (Brittingham Prize in Poetry) (Paperback)

Lisa Lewis' first collection of poems reads like the average third or fourth book- in voice and craft, it feels and sounds totally mature; it is a dark and unflattering world for a single woman out there, and these completely unsentimental, narrative- descriptive, long lined meditative poems tell it like it is-- they are frightening in their lack of illusion, or self-deception, or even emotion-- they record all the events of the speaker's and others' lives with fierce kind of objectoivity. These are smart, tough poems which give back in spades what the world dishes out. A rare collection. Lewsi' second collection is not, by the way, as strong, but this is a star. This is like reading the National Enquierer for real folk, told by the people who were there. Check it out, Mary.

5.0 out of 5 stars Queen of the Flat & Steady Gaze, August 28, 2000

By 

Private Citizen "PC" (Oxford MS) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Unbeliever (Brittingham Prize in Poetry) (Paperback)

Lisa Lewis' first collection of poems reads like the average third or fourth book- in voice and craft, it feels and sounds totally mature; it is a dark and unflattering world for a single woman out there, and these completely unsentimental, narrative- descriptive, long lined meditative poems tell it like it is-- they are frightening in their lack of illusion, or self-deception, or even emotion-- they record all the events of the speaker's and others' lives with fierce kind of objectoivity. These are smart, tough poems which give back in spades what the world dishes out. A rare collection. Lewsi' second collection is not, by the way, as strong, but this is a star. This is like reading the National Enquierer for real folk, told by the people who were there. Check it out, Mary.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I'm not biased..., August 3, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Unbeliever (Brittingham Prize in Poetry) (Paperback)

Lisa Lewis is a wonderful poet, caring teacher, and attentive mentor. I'm blessed to have gotten the chance to work with her, and I definately recommend this book, which excels at re-thinking some of the basic elements of human nature.