The depressed, droning naturalism that will sometimes give her prose fiction a stubborn power does almost nothing for Oates' poetry. The concerns are mostly the same: fate, violence, people as motes in the world's eye. The titles: "Hauled from River, Sunday 8 A.M." and "Wealthy Lady." But the effects are flat, often snide: "Last night in a basement recreation room/ there were people who refused to be recreated!/ Husbands and wives who had surely met one another before/ sat in stern silence side by side/ staring at the faces opposite/ staring at the simulated knotty-pine wall." Nor is there any true trace of lyric felicity: "Now a soprano's voice rises suddenly/ from a Schoenberg quartet/ beside the tinfoil chrysanthemums/ bodiless in beauty/ beyond the spicy shame of blood." Mostly it's toneless, jerry-built, and obvious poetry without much flavor one way or another.
Pub Date: July 1, 1978
ISBN: 0807103918
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Louisiana State Univ.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 2, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1978
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
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