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One Secret Thing. Sharon Olds (2009)

by Sharon Olds(Favorite Author)

4.02 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0224087843 (ISBN13: 9780224087841)

languge

English

genre

Poetry

publisher

Cape Poetry

review 1: The poems about war that lead into this collection are marvelous, but they are followed by Olds typical focus on herself and family. While her work is excellent in technique, the poems are often so intimate that they are off-putting, and sometimes echo with an unpleasant narcissism. What is interesting is that in earlier poems, Olds attacks her mother as a child abuser, yet in the later poems about her mother's death, she switches to an elegiac mode glorifying their relationship. Mother-daughter relations are often conflicted and it is easier to relate with kindness and generosity when you know the person is soon to be gone from your life and the edginess extinguished. Thus, the poems on her mother' death are suspect. All this emotion is linked to Old's soon-to-be release ... morefrom her mother's existence. She refers to her mother as though she were now a child; her mother's illness and impending demise removes the power she once held and Olds can now "love" her by objectifying her as the mother she would have preferred. There's a kind of dishonesty here that I don't like. But the execution of the poems is fine.
review 2: The first section of this book, the War poems, is very stark and moving. The imagery is gripping and powerful. The rest of the collection is mostly about her life (childhood, adulthood, caring for and losing parents), while all touching topics, they somehow are not as engaging as the section on war. The only exception being the poem about the inmate on deathrow--not sure how that one slipped into her poems about her life--it has the strength of the poems about war from the first part of the book. less

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