Word Comix: Poems [Paperback]

Charlie Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2, 2010

“Smith writes with a scalding aortal brilliance that leaves the reader drunk on dream.”—New York Times Book Review

Taking as his starting point such wide-ranging subjects as comic books, politics, romantic love, geology, newspapers, totalitarianism, the natural world, the classics, Paris, Miami Beach, and war, Charlie Smith has written freshly realized poems in which compassion and tough-mindedness gesture toward wisdom.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Smith writes with a scalding aortal brilliance that leaves the reader drunk on dream." The New York Times Book Review

About the Author

Charlie Smith is an award-winning poet and novelist. Five of his works have been named New York Times Notable Books. Smith has taught at Princeton University and the University of Alabama, and he lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 80 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (August 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393338193
• ISBN-13: 978-0393338195
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.9 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,590,412 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Successfully revives "verse", January 22, 2010

By 

Lyric Poet "Lyric Poet" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Word Comix: Poems (Hardcover)

I've only read one poem from this book, so why review it? The poem I read was in a review absolutely trashing Smith, yet while the critic was fisking the poem (taking it apart line by line) I was slowly realizing, "I want to read more of this. She doesn't get it at all." Since her review was just picked up by the Arts and Letters Daily, and will be read all over the Anglophone world by morning, thought I should register my dissent. Reviewer underestimated, for instance, "A softness in your wife's face/reminding you of something/ you thought you'd never forget." It's not about the "something," it's about realizing, during the long erosion of married life, that you did forget what you once had assumed unforgettable. I've been reading Smith online tonight. I am more into Auden than his genre, but I respect the way Smith revives what used to be called "verse," and gives us in thirty seconds experiences a short story writer would need half an hour to produce. (And the verse is therefore more intense than the story.) The title poem of Smith's book, Heroin, is even more impressive. Halfway through, he shifts diction, shifts to a different level of imagery, so that you feel the way the heroin used to hit him. It scared me as much as those surreal scenes in Trainspotting. Like that great film, it was drugs without the showing off, self pity, or sneaking pride. I want to read more.