On My Way to Where - 1st Edition/1st Printing

by Dory Previn

Book Overview

A book of poems by Dory Previn. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0841501203
• ISBN13: 9780841501201
• Release Date: January 1971
• Publisher: McCall Publishing Company
• Length: 117 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Dory Previn- Poetry of Regret, Rebirth, and Renewal

Too often, autobiographical works tend to gloss over difficult subjects, and present the author in the best possible light. Not so in Dory Previn's painfully honest set of 33 autobiographical poems that comprise her stunning literary opus, titled "ON MY WAY TO WHERE". Through her masterfully written poetry, many of which have been set to music by the author, Ms. Previn takes the reader on her hellish descent into child abuse, mental illness, depression, divorce, deception, slow recovery and ultimate re-emergance into sanity. Her poetry chronicles her violent chilhood ("Daddy put away his gun, and I forgot it happened, like something I'd been dreaming, till 18 odd years later, when I suddenly woke up screaming" and "Daddy says I ain't his child, ain't that something, ain't that wild"), her devastating divorce from composer and maestro Andre Previn ("The thought he'll leave, bitterly burns, and my despondence grows"), her husband's affair with actress Mia Farrow ("Beware of young girls, too often they crave, to cry at a wedding, and dance on a grave"). Yet, the majority of "On My Way to Where" deals with her resulting mental illness, and this is where Ms. Previn digs so deeply into her soul that the result is a heart-piercing rawness rarely seen in contemporary poetry. "Twenty-Mile Zone" chronicles the very night of her mental breakdown and ultimate institutionalization, but her account of that incident is such a mixture of horror, melancholy and biting, nasty wit, that the reader is left both crying and laughing. This duality of emotion is no accident-it is a beaitifully crafted literary device designed to give the reader a rare glimpse into her world of schizophrenia, or, as Ms. Previn writes it, "Schiz=Broken, Phrenos=Soul". Her "Broken Soul" is laid bare throughout this book with breathtaking intensity, yet the artistry is never lost in the emotion, for Ms. Previn is the quintessential poet, taking the pathos of Sylvia Plath to the next level of honesty. If her poems take us into the dark tunnel of mental illness and abuse, her final work in this book is the proverbial light at the end. In this last poem, titled "Listen", the meter changes to a decidedly upbeat gate, and the words reflect a healing of her broken soul. She writes: "The feeling in my bloodflow, is a simple thing, y'see, I am it, I am it, I am everything and nothing, and that's how to play the game...listen and it all begins to fit, I am it, I am it." Through sadness, bitterness and loss, Dory Previn has crafted one of the finest group of 20th Century poetry, and through her art, has emerged to show others the way out of the tunnel.