The Father

By Sharon Olds

Book Overview

A searing sequence of poems about a daughter's vision of a father's illness and death--by a poet for these times, a powerful woman who won't back down (San Francisco Chronicle) and winner of the Pulitzer Prize and T. S. Eliot Prize

The Father chronicles these events in a connected narrative, from the onset of the illness to reflections in the years after the death. The book is, most of all, a series of acts of understanding. The poems are impelled by a passion to know, and a freedom to follow wherever the truth may lead. The book goes into area of feeling and experience rarely entered in poetry.

The ebullient language, the startling, far-reaching images, the sense of extraordinary connectedness seize us immediately. Sharon Olds transforms a harsh reality with truthfulness, with beauty, with humor--and without bitterness.

The deep pain in The Father arises from a death, and from understanding a life. But there is joy as well. In the end, we discover we have been reading not a grim accounting but an inspiriting tragedy, transcending the personal. The radiance and daring that have always distinguished Sharon Old's work find here their most powerful expression.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679740023
• ISBN13: 9780679740025
• Release Date: April 1992
• Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.9" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Sharon Olds is a gift to the world!

Excruciating in their revelations, potent with revolution, Sharon Olds' poems approach the dominance of father over daughter with shocking force, raw intimacy, and ultimately grace. The reverberant layering of the collection's structure generates an irresistible pull into the core of self and family, from which Olds helps the reader emerge able to engage with greater transparency, and love with unlimited will.

Bold View on a Father/Daughter Relationship

I agree with everything the positive reviewers said. This is a pretty bold exploration of a relationship most of us have but few of us take the time to examine. I like that Olds isn't afraid to take risks. Maybe she does repeat herself -- but that's the risk you run when you write poetry. Usually your subject is yourself and how you move inside this world and relate to other people.

The Father

This is one of the most eloquent readings I have ever come across. Ms. Olds powerful use of metaphor to describe the tormented relationship she had with her father is insightful and inspiring. This should be required reading for any young female (indeed people of all genders and ages) struggling to find a means for remaining not only sane, inspite of the insanity in to which some of us are born, but how to remain caring, compassionate and creatively involved with your surroundings, despite the chaos of whatever personal hell you must survive to do so.

Genius

This is one of the best books I have ever read and Olds is a major talent, not just in the world of autobiographical poetry... but in the world of international literature. ---