Wanton Sublime, The [Perfect Paperback]

Anna Rabinowitz (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 20, 2006

In her dazzling third volume of poetry, The Wanton Sublime, Anna Rabinowitz creates nothing short of a new genre of utterance as she cuts through pieties and myths to get at the essential humanity of the Virgin Mary, and, ultimately, of all women.
The Wanton Sublime is an ""anthology"" of texts and commentaries that propels us on a breathtaking journey mapped by questions, conversations, and speculationsa journey to the very foundations of womanhood and motherhood.

Again and again Mary, exemplar of the feminine, quintessential mother, bearer/birther of divinity is re-visioned and re-defined; she is made kindred to Io, to Europa and to an ancient Egyptian woman who may have been the first unflinchingly assertive feminist. Rabinowitz investigates Mary as concept and as fact, as symbol and as flesh-and-blood female.

What does it mean to be chosen? How does one engage with otherness? What forces operate when one's life is interrupted? Are there possibilities of alternative narratives? How does one process the condition of not knowing? Linguistically brilliant and stylistically inventive, this daring work makes the universal particular, the particular universal.

The Wanton Sublime explores the burden, the dilemma and the glory of being chosen as it leads us to a renewed appreciation of what it means to be alive and a woman.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The editor of American Letters and Commentary, Rabinowitz investigates the mysteries, myths and cultural accretions around the Virgin Mary in this third collection; Mary becomes, in these rapt and provocative poems, both a symbol of ecstatic transcendence and a focus for questions about gender and power. Drawing eclectically on forms from rhyming quatrains to e. e. cummingsesque typography, Rabinowitz reimagines the Annunciation as a "Manysplendoredmoonmottledmarvel of the metaphysical," presenting a Virgin "entrapped/ and captive," "disarmed/ by angels/ a heart unarmed/ in evernow," insisting in dramatic capitals that angelic "LIGHT NEED NOT BE EXPLAINED." She places Mary in a tradition of mystics from Pythagoras and Greek myths to Catholic saints, leavening her paeans and chants with references to skeptics such as Michel de Montaigne. Rabinowitz's technique can be extravagant, but it may be the only way to do justice to the extreme emotions and ambitions she describes: "And with her YES a future world takes shape." (Mar.)
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From Booklist

Following her acclaimed book-length poem, Darkling (2001), this innovative examination of the Annunciation uses a collagelike, fractured narrative to explore the complex possibilities within the sacred story. Florilegium refers to "a collection of excerpts from written texts" and, in Latin, relates to flower gathering. The poems do form a "bouquet," plucked from varying sources of truths, lies, and artistic inquisition. Rabinowitz is a highly intellectual poet with unique vision and a distinct voice. She knows the rules of poetry and breaks them beautifully, bending words and forms to her purpose. Some poems seem a tad gimmicky as they follow linguistic/mental association, but others succeed in lending a lightheartedness that demonstrates that Rabinowitz does not take herself too seriously. This does not, however, lessen her respect for her subject matter, or for her role as translator of thought or "vessel through which the music passes" (as Stravinsky called himself). Some readers will find Rabinowitz challenging, but all will be sent on a journey into fresh poetic and philosophical territory. Janet St. John
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 94 pages
• Publisher: Tupelo Press; First edition. edition (May 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932195394
• ISBN-13: 978-1932195392
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,752,216 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A Difficult Task, Well Managed, February 14, 2007

By 

Glenn Raucher (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wanton Sublime, The (Perfect Paperback)

(Anna Rabinowitz read as part of the Writer's Voice Visiting Authors Series at the West Side YMCA on 8 December 2006. This was my introduction):

Anna Rabinowitz' The Wanton Sublime approaches its topic from so many different angles, and with so many different poetic approaches, that the reader, confronted with the unfamiliar, could find entry into these poems somewhat difficult.

But instead, the overall effect of Anna's simultaneously rigorous yet playful use of language--alliterations running seemingly further than they could go, but working; breaking lines down to their crux without abandoning meaning; fearlessly extending them; doing anything but cleaving to the standard look and feel of a poem--rivets the reader.

With utter frankness and blunt honesty, and a generous helping of righteous anger and justice-seeking fury, The Wanton Sublime is both unique in its style, and hauntingly familiar in its meaning--the search for identity, both intensely personal and manifestly archetypal. By the time we get to the magisterial "It Is Time to Speak of the Lies," the work has taken on a feeling of magnitude, without ever becoming arrogant, self-regarding or strident. It is a difficult thing to do, but in this case, done magnificently.

5.0 out of 5 stars Daring, Provactive and Super Super Smart, October 4, 2006

By 

Nancy Friedman (NYC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wanton Sublime, The (Perfect Paperback)

What if Mary wasn't who we've all always thought her to be? That's the question Anna Rabinowitz poses in this thought-provoking, linguistically daring, sometimes shocking collection.
In The Wanton Sublime, she treats Mary as an unwilling (unwitting?) participant in the conception of her son - was she raped, did she invite it, did she have a choice? To Rabinowitz, Mary isn't symbolic, she is flesh and blood, with feelings, perceptions, expectations, and disappointments. She is also unknowable, and so rather than make Mary a particular person, much of this book contemplates who she might have been, how she might have reacted to both The Annuncation, and then losing her son to world at large, and finally, to death.

Mary was, of course, a Jewish mother, so it's not so strange for Rabinowitz, whose previous book, Darkling, dealt primarily with a Jewish (i.e. Holocaust) theme to be tackling this issue. What is strange and uniquely wonderful is her voice: unafraid to question, unabashedly intelligent, and ranging from fiercely combative to remarkably tender, from anger to joy, terror to sorrow. It's a fascinating take on an under-examined topic.

This is not poetry for the "contemplating my navel" set, but for those who wish to see the world - and their own place in it - with new, daring eyes. Rabinowitz's eyes are so keenly observant, she makes it seem easy. But challenging the status quo never is.
This book challenges, questions, and entertains. A tour de force. A must for any serious reader of poetry, or serious student of The Annunciation.