Pure Poetry

by Binnie Kirshenbaum

Book Overview

Meet Lila Moscowitz, a smart-mouthed, Jewish American beauty with a voracious appetite for sex, a remarkable talent for outrageous lies, and an unerring knack for screwing up her life. An accomplished poet, renowned for writing "smut and filth in terza rima," she goes about her life in Pure Poetry with enough attitude and verve to win your heart forever. But since fleeing the all-consuming passion of her marriage to Max, the sexy German, she can no...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743241827
• ISBN13: 9780743241823
• Release Date: March 2002
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

ANOTHER GREAT READ!

Binnie Kirshenbaum has done it again--only better. As a reader of her novels and short stories I've come to love her writing. In Pure Poetry she has once again made "real" people outrageous and her outrageous people real. She can hone in on relationships like no one else. Watching her characters find each others buttons & press them is worth the price of admission. Her uniqueness in her details of Lila dealing with Max, Henry, & her cross dressing shrink plus Lila dealing with Lila or anyone else who passes befoe or near her is just a small part of what makes Kirshenbaum one of our more insightful writers. Her humor shows that she could do standup--and her irreverance is written with "attitude" and shows so well in her Jewish/German cross culture relationships. There are so many pure nuggets of brilliance in this book. Pure Poetry has brought Binnie Kirshenbaum to the next level and we readers are the beneficiaries.

Pure Poetry is Pure Pleasure

PURE POETRY captures NYC, especially the constant Hudson summer construction and the walk along the river. I really liked how badly Lila's family treats her--the phone calls where after a beat she needs to identify herself as "daughter" to her father and how no one called on Tuesday to tell her her mother died and how Lila has tried to twist her anger at her family constantly wishing she was never born into this stealthy heat about the Nazis. I liked that photo of Lila's first birthday destroyed by her in-laws and how she lashes out at one of the few people in her life who helps her after he gets sick. I also really liked the story of Max making a museum piece of the sheet with Lila's blood. It told me everything about why she loved him. The point is to understand Lila and the point is we wouldn't like anyone if we really knew what everyone thought all the time. The point is the book is well made. It gives me much to think about: how each opening definition shapes the chapter; the idea of therapy sessions as small chapters, as poems; why Lila is so angry at Max for being German and stays with him. Some of the writing reminds me of Grace Paley, which I think might be described as New York Jewish female with-it aplomb, that way of perverting words to ironic needs. There's so much language joy and word honing. It's a well-crafted work.

Pure Poetry Is Pure Pleasure!

This book is a treasure just waiting for you to discover it! You'll recognize the poet main character, Lila, right away. She's your sister or your dear friend--the funny, smart one with all the problems. Then again, maybe she's you! Sometimes you identify and sympathize with her; other times you want to grab her quickly before she makes another bad mistake. I especially liked the small particulars of this character's world: the ghosts that inhabit her apartment; her mother's unnatural affection for a stuffed animal; and the New York details, like the jack hammers tearing up the streets that herald the arrival of summer. I've read all of Binnie Kirshenbaum's work, and she just keeps getting better.

A must read

I think this novel is brilliant, daring, funny, and sad. This writer has a way of making you laugh until, all of a sudden, you realize the pain, much the way a young Philip Roth did. Pure Poetry is a multi-layered book. It risks much and acheives much. A must read.

I love this writer

Just started reading this, but I've been looking forward to it coming out ever since I heard her read an excerpt at the KGB Bar last year. Binnie Kirshenbaum's voice is sharp and hilarious and dead-on, and yet there is something bittersweet under the surface that adds a depth to her work not present in a lot of writers working in a smilir vein. Do yourself a favor and read this book.