Against Love Poetry

by Eavan Boland

Book Overview

These powerful poems are written against the perfections and idealizations of traditional love poetry. The man and woman in these poems are husband and wife, custodians of ordinary, aging human love. They are not figures in a love poem. Time is their essential witness, and not their destroyer. A New York Times Notable Book and a Newsday Favorite Book of 2001.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393324249
• ISBN13: 9780393324242
• Release Date: April 2003
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 64 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.8" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

Language that Startles

I always find it challenging to rate a book of poetry, since a single great poem can make it worth the purchase. That said, I discovered more than a few wonderful poems in this collection. Certain language will stay with me for a long time, like this from the poem "Quarantine," about a couple who died walking north... "But her feet were held against his breastbone. The last heat of his flesh was his last gift to her." Then there is this from "The First Year"... "the steep inclines and country silences of your boyhood, the orange-faced narcissi and the whole length of the Blackwater" And, from "Making Money"... "see the small boundaries all this will buy or the poisoned kingdom with its waterways and splintered locks or the peacocks who will walk this paper up and down in the windless gardens" In the end, though I could discuss lines and silences, internal rhymes and themes, this is the only way to explain poetry...to share what startles and wait.

Against Love Poetry

//This is a unique book of poems by a woman "married thirty years" who, if you'll pardon the expression,tells it like it is. It's no surprise that this book, in particular, hashas raised the hackles of thosewho prefer women to write angst-inspired confessionals as opposed towhat we have here -- the truth. The language, as always, is beautiful. Two of the poems, "Quarantine" and "Thanked Be Fortune" are fantastic. Read this book first, and judge for yourself.

a thoroughly enjoyable book

Against Love is an extremely interesting work. As the author states, it is a polemic (confrontational argument), not an essay or balanced account of the subject. It is purposefully designed to push the reader into a confrontatory state regarding the subject of love, especially in the context of marriage/coupling in current U.S. society.I found Kipnis writing wonderful, witty, intense, and refreshing. She is the first author I have read in a long time that sent me packing off to the dictionary more than once in a book. She is erudite without being a stuffy academic, knowledgable without being pedantic, and humorous without being gross. I see her as having the honesty of a Carol Queen, the political savy and wit of a Molly Ivins or Jim Hightower, the insightful intellect of a Noam Chomsky, and more. This is one of the few books I have read in the last few years that had me laughing out loud in places. She really hits the nail right on the thumb. Regardless of how you feel about the topic or the ideas discussed, her writing alone is worth reading the book.Of course, I may be biased. Her writing style is similar enough to mine that I felt very much at home with this book, and read it quickly. She does write in a style that is complex, with long sentences (and paranthetical asides). She also has a substantial vocabulary. Her use of style is neither narcissistic nor exhibitionistic, however. Her use of language in her presentation of ideas is pointed and precise, and it is difficult to put the book down once one starts reading it. (I found myself reading it in one sitting.) Despite being divided into chapters, it reads more like one long, flowing discussion.As far as the actual material, it is not an exhaustive history of marriage and courtship behavior in U.S. society. It is a series of observations and arguments exploring the weakness of the concepts of love and marriage as they are viewed today by mainstream U.S. culture. Kipnis connects recent biological research, various social theories, and behavior reported by people in therapy to weave her arguments. She does address some historical material in order to provide context for her arguments, but again, it is by no means exhaustive. She does provide enough information, however, sources cited in the text and a bibliography and reference list, to encourage more in-depth exploration.It is meant to be a starting point for further exploration and discussion, and offers no surprise happy endings and no panaceas. This is not a book about how to be polyamorous, develop new relationship styles, swing, or live happily alone. It is an intellectual broadside fired at the status quo in order to get people to open up and think about something which is normally not in their conscious awareness, and to question that which is usually mindlessly accepted.