Review by Choice Review
Mark Doty's third collection, winner of the 1992 National Book Award in poetry, pivots on the Alexandrine metaphor of a city of beauty and light; however, the metropolitan backdrops and plights described in this book are stark and drear. Poems are set in panhandling parks, buses, auctions, hospitals, ferries. People here seem in stasis or crossing over to stasis. Hart Crane, mentioned in one poem, comes to mind. There is much to admire in this book--its unity, suggestion of AIDS, theme of mortality--and, especially, its polish. Each well-chosen word seems agonized over and conquered finally. And for many readers, this may be a drawback. When read individually or in small groups, each poem stands out; but taken as a whole, the dense narration begins to weigh down the passion behind the work. Just as one is tempted to quit reading toward the end of the book, Doty inserts a series of three poems which convey (rather than compete with) that passion, particularly the wonderful lyric "No" about children in a public dining hall who hear that "no" word too often. Doty needs more such poems to make My Alexandria succeed on a universal level. In sum, it is a shame that only patient readers of academic poetry will savor the wisdom and intelligence of this recommended selection. M. Bugeja; Ohio University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Doty's ( Turtle, Swan ) third volume, selected by Levine for the 1993 National Poetry Series, is built around impermanence: a glass sculpture, a human lover. Opening the collection with a detailed portrait of a building being demolished, Doty moves on to describe the absolute innocence of first love, the lover whom the speaker wishes he could ``call again / to apologize for my naive / persistence, my lack of etiquette.'' Readers are guided through a world of female impersonators, street musicians and homeless poets. There is an all-pervasive sense of doom, from the dying man who gives away all his animals to the dog shot in the head that refuses to take its final breath. Despite their endearing honesty, these poems reveal no kinship with the confessional poetry of Plath, Lowell or Sexton. Doty turns to technical devices as a checkrein: uniform stanzas, rhyme and off-rhyme keeping up a regular beat, form adding to the tension inherent in the subject matter. The shortest piece here is three pages, and most are longer, as if the inevitable outcome could be prolonged by words that take forever to reach their destination. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
This remarkable book, selected for the 1992 National Poetry Series by Philip Levine, comprises a series of eloquent meditations on the essential themes: mortality and life, beauty and loss. The collection is haunted by the specter of AIDS, but the transforming power of the poet's imagination makes all sorrow and joy his metier. Truly a superb stylist, Doty possesses emotional power--call it a deep heart--that gives his verbal facility weight. Whether finding in singers' voices the ``secret advocates of our hearts'' or hearing in a violinist ``the sound that movement/ through experience would make,/ if we could stand far enough away/ to hear it: lovely, and inconsoling,'' Doty brings to his work a ``perfection out of hunger,/ fused layer upon layer,'' creating himself ``an art . . . of how soft things are,/ how good, before they disappear.'' Beautiful.-- Frank J. Lepkowski, Oakland Univ., Rochester, Mich. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
