The First Five Books of Poems by Louise Glück

3.85 AVERAGE

gabrielrobartes's review against another edition

4.0
There are lovely lines, lovely individual moments in the first books. But The Triumph Of Achilles contains some plain-spoken meditations on death that pinch and prick and Ararat is the kind of text that reduces sibling relationships to rubble. The form ends up at a kind of plain-spoken version of Robert Hass et al (except she knows when to stop whereas Hass will just go on and on and on) but the message is chilling and brutal - to love in a family is to endure pain; death is all that awaits; human relationships are structured by the nature of their misunderstandings. These poems offer cold comfort but compellingly so.
beau_mdb's profile picture

beau_mdb's review against another edition

4.0
I thought it was fascinating to read Glück's earlier work in a row and see, how she developed as a writer.
I started really getting into it with "Descending Figure" and I also think that one is my favorite out of the collection. "Ararat" was my least favorite, because it was too literal and straight forward for me.
"Firstborn" I didn't vibe with too much, but it was cute.
"The house on Marshland" was the first time I saw some things that I liked that would later shape my favorite collection of hers "The wild Iris", so I enjoyed it quite a bit and finally "The Triumph of Achilles" was all right.
spacestationtrustfund's profile picture

spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition

2.0
from THE TRIUMPH OF ACHILLES
What were the Greek ships on fire
compared to this loss?

In his tent, Achilles
grieved with his whole being
and the gods saw

he was a man already dead, a victim
of the part that loved,
the part that was mortal.

fluentinsilence's review against another edition

4.0
http://winterlief.blogspot.nl/2016/12/parados-louise-gluck.html