Rae Armantrout, a core member of the Language writing movement, has long been known for the wit, emotion and punch of her social critique. Veil contains poems from five of Armantrout's previous books as well as a generous selection of new poems. Her work relies tenaciously on the intelligibility of language, her careful syntax bordering on plain speech and meticulously scored lines always questioning how linguistic subjects are formed. Armantrout is interested in questions of origin, and the psychology of perception; she is interested in who is speaking and how we know what we know. Fans will welcome the chance to become reacquainted with her witty and lyric meditations on erotic and family issues, and new readers will be captivated by her poems' immediate availability and freshness.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
The San Diego-based Armantrout is usually considered the most lyrically oriented of the language poets, eschewing the longer, process-oriented works of the San Francisco wing (now geographically scattered) of her fellow travelers. Her 1998 autobiographical work, True, demonstrated that she could write compelling, if not virtuosic, prose; Wesleyan's selection shows that as with William Carlos Williams, to whom Armantrout owes a debt in the curious torquing of her sentences it is not stylistic pyrotechnics, grandiose theoretical syntheses or encyclopedic references that drives these terrific poems, but an original and quirky turn of mind. Veil includes work from seven previous collections, including The Pretext (which Green Integer is finally issuing whole), and a section of 19 new poems clocking in at 32 pages. Those who haven't discovered the superb poems of Necromance and Made to Seem will find their unsettling vignettes utterly compelling, alert to the vaguest shades of postmodern subjecthood. The Pretext's best poems are resonant coincidings of short bursts of insight, not necessarily aimed at metaphysical revelry (as in, say, Louise Glick's work or in writers of the "ellipticist" tendency) but suggesting an ethical dimension to being: "How do I look?// meaning what/ could I pass for/ when every eye's/ a guard," she writes in "My Associates," and later, "Time's tic:/ to pitch forward/ then catch `itself'/ again.// `We're' bombing Iraq again.// If I turn on the news,/ someone will say, `We / mean business.'" The new poems (including "The Plan," which will be featured in Best American Poetry 2001) continue to avoid "wild/ posturing" for "leafy// prestidigitation" readers won't believe their eyes. (Oct.) Forecast: Armantrout steadily gained recognition in the '90s as writers and critics of all stripes discovered her work; Veil is sure to be often assigned on campus, while the full-text Pretext will be more confined to fans. The publication of the two books together, especially given Wesleyan's high po-biz profile, should give Armantrout an extra push toward overdue award nominations.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.Review
"Armantrout is usually considered the most lyrically oriented of the language poets . . . Wesleyan's selection shows that--as with William Carlos Williams, to whom Armantrout owes a debt in the curious torquing of her sentences - it is not stylistic pyrotechnics, grandiose theoretical syntheses or encyclopedic references that drive these terrific poems, but an original and quirky turn of mind." --Publishers Weekly
"This long-awaited collection proves that Armantrout is not a 'language poet' and is not confined by expectations of the American avant-garde, among which much of her work has appeared. In brief lines and unexpected weavings, Armantrout addresses history, love, nature, and the darkness of domesticity. This is one of the best books of poetry released in 2001." --Bloomsbury Review
"This long-awaited collection proves that Armantrout is not a 'language poet' and is not confined by expectations of the American avant-garde, among which much of her work has appeared. In brief lines and unexpected weavings, Armantrout addresses history, love, nature, and the darkness of domesticity. This is one of the best books of poetry released in 2001." --Bloomsbury Review
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A ranging collection of powerful poems,
By Mike (Iowa) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Veil: New and Selected Poems (Wesleyan Poetry Series) (Paperback)
Rae Armantrout has a secure foothold among academic readers, but her appeal seems not to have crossed to those of us in the wider population. I suspect this is not because of the so-called "difficulty" of her poems: Emily Dickinson is just as difficult and no less popular for it. Instead, I blame how folks write about her work.
Here is an excerpt from the poet Ron Silliman's foreward to Veil: "These poems return obsessively to this Wittgensteinian double bind: The objects and events of this world can never be experienced directly, absent all mediation." Now, this may be a perfectly astute description of Armantrout's style, but it doesn't exactly give me the confidence to believe that I can understand anything going on in this book. But I can! I can understand it, or some of it. Look, you should read Armantrout--at least this selection of her poems. She'll show you something different than what she shows me; to be sure, she'll show us all something different, but you'll certainly see something (and probably not that Wittgensteinian bind that binds). She tinkers with cliché and psychology, and enjoys disrupting the way we think about meaning. Here's her own explanation of what she does, taken (I hope permissibly) from the first stanze of her arresting "My Problem" (in Made To Seem (New American Poetry) and selected for Veil): It is my responsibility to squeeze the present from the past by demanding particulars. When the dog is used to represent the inner man, I need to ask, "What kind of dog is it?"
2 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
modern verse that must last,
By I X Key "burningfield" (tomorrow) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Veil: New and Selected Poems (Wesleyan Poetry Series) (Paperback)
Raw Armantrout is a very exciting poet. In her poems she is constantly communicating such incredibly unique & gleaming thoughts. Her minimalistic style is so unlike anything else I've read.
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