Customer Reviews

The Way Out: Poems by Lisa Sewell

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Lisa Sewell's is a distinctive voice. If her range of subject is limited, if her tireless self-perusal could benefit at the very least from a sense of humor, she's nonetheless a poet to watch for her rigorous and often unexpected diction and the way that she treads a taut tightrope between spoken speech and literary lingo.

"a fierce and engaging quarrel with the fact of flesh" Mark Doty made this statement in his review. This statement and others led me to believe I was about to take on a tough poet. One who would offer a comprehensive world-view; displaying all the beauty, grime, nastiness, ecstasy, noxious odors, etc...

The reviews had me thinking I might have found a female Charles Bukowski.

I got the anti-thesis of Charles Bukowski: an academic, who's better at word-smithing than articulating a comprehensive worthwhile idea.

Sewell, strings together angst-ridden words in a run-o-the-mill, sappy way. Nothing new or interesting here. No unique perspective. I found a couple of moments where Sewell almost got something going, but they were wrapped in 2-dimensional, impotent ideas about identity, God, love.

If you're looking for safe poems, get this book. If you want something electric, full of fire, and unique... stay very far away.

"The Way Out" is a wonderful work of poetry. The poems concern many aspects of the human condition in terms both sensitive and searching. The poems are moving in their frankness and tenderness, are perceptive in their depth of gaze and allusion, and exhibit a high degree of craft in their use of language and image. I highly recommend it.

This is an amazing book with insights into Lisa Sewell's mind and soul. The poetry goes beyond what is normally expected and bares a great deal. Thanks, Dr. Sewell, for sharing some of your talent with your students! :) "Gabriel, make me your Jacob, name me, wrestle me, until morning."

This book is unique in combining an unusually sharp intelligence with a remarkable depth of emotional resonance; In her poetry Lisa Sewell is unflinching, unafraid to examine the complex layers of meaning in key junctures of the human experience. This book is important, jarring, moving. Lisa Sewell leads us to places we haven't been before, both in our minds and hearts.