Weep Not, My Wanton: Stories & Poems (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In this stunning debut . . .are sentences that, at any turn, could tear your heart open." -- Ammiel Alcalay, review of poem WillieWorld, Poetry Project Newsletter, 6/99

"Maggie Dubris is one of the best lyric poets writing today . . .a book to refer to whenever you need inspiration." -- Vicki Hudspith, review of Weep Not, My Wanton, poetz.com 2002

Product Description

"With every call to save a life, Maggie Dubris - who worked as a 911 paramedic in Hell's Kitchen throughout the '80s and '90s enters a different and strange world. . . . . A vivid rendering of the lives of New York's poorest and most invisible." -New York Post

"I used to think that working on an ambulance would be like being in a war," writes Maggie Dubris, a longtime paramedic in and around Times Square. "I thought that I would go up against death, face to face, and that I would win, because I wanted to so much. But that's not how it is."

In this, her debut collection, Dubris tells us "how it is" in unheroic, often comic detail. Her stories and poems - full of strobe-lit images of the homeless, the lost, and the luckless in emergency rooms, hotel rooms, and subway tunnels - are the verbal equivalents of Weegee's photographs. It was Weegee who wrote: "When you find yourself [feeling] a bond between yourself and the people you document, when you life and cry with their laughter and their tears, you will know you are on the right track." Maggie Dubris, in this debut collection, is most definitely on the right track. Weep Not, My Wanton collects eight short stories and a fifty-page poem, "WilleWorld," all based on Dubris' experience as an EMS worker in New York City. Here, too, is a ambitious series of linked poems, "Toilers of the Sea," concerning other themes: extinction, time, comic books, and the passage of the old world into the new.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Black Sparrow Press; First trade paperback printing. edition (June 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574231804
• ISBN-13: 978-1574231809
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,420,801 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the Best Poets I've Come Across in a Long Time, October 2, 2002

By	gabrielpossenti "gabrielpossenti" (NY, NY) - See all my reviews

I actually got excited reading this book. Maggie Dubris' poetry is richly conceived and beautifully executed. The lengthy section "Toilers of the Sea" is a spellbinding mosaic of nursery rhymes, fragements of traditional folk songs, lyrical flights, modernist touches and strange catalogues. The long prose poem "WillieWorld" is harrowing, touching and filled with sharp details.

The book also contains a number of short stories. The one about the Rolling Stones in group therapy is a kick.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome, I loved it..., July 21, 2002

By A Customer

Weep not my wanton is a wonderful, powerful, funny and at times heart breaking collection of stories and poems. Maggie Dubris tells tales of New York City that the average citizen doesn't even know exists. It's an amazing glimpse into worlds we glide by unknowingly everyday. Her combination of prose and poems is fabulous and works so well. She infuses the pages with strong feelings. Some of the stories had me rolling with laughter. The section called "Toilers of the sea" is so full of emotion it at times brought me to tears. Black Sparrow press seldom lets us down and this book is no exception. Maggie Dubris is a wonderful author and I am so glad to have been able to read her book. I loved every last word.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars maggie kicks [bottom], January 13, 2003

By	P. Provost "wardenista" (USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

this is a fine, fine book that you will not be sorry that you purchased. you might find yourself reading it more than once. it is a testament, a love letter to pain, to vulnerabilty, to life in all it's terrifying glory. it is brutally hard one moment, and then like a bird's heart in your hand in another. delicate like a razor. maybe you'll let out a few balls-out laughs while you're on this literary roller coaster, you might cry your eyes out too. maggie dukes it out with the best of the scribblers here. a true gem.