Scan barcode
jackieh346's review against another edition
5.0
I first learned of Marie Howe's poetry in my poetry workshop class in college. I immediately fell in love with her collection "What the Living Do" and purchased/read "The Good Thief". I enjoy her narratives, her subjects of family and spirituality as well as her long, prose-like lines. I especially enjoyed the poems, Part of Eve's Discussion, What Angels left, From Nowhere, Guests, and Mary's argument. LOVE THIS POET!!!!
shanviolinlove's review against another edition
5.0
I cannot get over how much I relished these poems. As hard as it was for me to get into her "What the Living Do," based on its more straightforward structure, these poems breathe lyricism, contemplative beauty, without shying away from the grit and raw pain of abuse, grief, and healing; a haunting from people of her past; and biblical retellings. Her poems try to make sense of an abstract world, assigning scissors to the mystery of miracles, human desire to death, emotion and psyche to Mary's encounter and Isaac's near death. Resonant and powerful, this first collection of Howe's secures her as a major poet.
revmegankelly's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
5.0
Striking in all the best ways.
middle_name_joy's review against another edition
4.0
I think most writers and poets (rarely one and the same) are searching for something through their novels and poems, respectively. Solace. Understanding. Revenge. Honesty. Closure. Redemption. Peace. They stalk what they seek with each new work, and when they finally hit on it, there is transcendence.
In my humble opinion, [b:The Good Thief|322797|The Good Thief|Marie Howe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347508505l/322797._SY75_.jpg|313506] is not Marie Howe's transcendent work. I believe that to be [b:What the Living Do: Poems|206472|What the Living Do Poems|Marie Howe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386924720l/206472._SX50_.jpg|199830]. You can fight me.
Yet you can feel the stalking here. Many of the themes fully bared in Living are partially exposed in Thief. The abuse in her childhood. Faith and Biblical figures superimposed onto today's world. Exploring unbelonging in the skin of others, like a beast learning the routine of its prey and recognizing its own practicalities, its own comforts in the quarry's actions.
There is beauty in beginnings, and I surely enjoyed Howe's early hunt. Overall, I gravitated to "What Belongs to Us," "A Thin Smattering of Applesauce," "Part of Eve's Discussion," and "Recovery," which is excerpted below.
You have decided to live. This is your fifth
day living. Hard to sleep. Hard to eat,
the food thick on your tongue, as I watch you,
my own mouth moving.
In my humble opinion, [b:The Good Thief|322797|The Good Thief|Marie Howe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1347508505l/322797._SY75_.jpg|313506] is not Marie Howe's transcendent work. I believe that to be [b:What the Living Do: Poems|206472|What the Living Do Poems|Marie Howe|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386924720l/206472._SX50_.jpg|199830]. You can fight me.
Yet you can feel the stalking here. Many of the themes fully bared in Living are partially exposed in Thief. The abuse in her childhood. Faith and Biblical figures superimposed onto today's world. Exploring unbelonging in the skin of others, like a beast learning the routine of its prey and recognizing its own practicalities, its own comforts in the quarry's actions.
There is beauty in beginnings, and I surely enjoyed Howe's early hunt. Overall, I gravitated to "What Belongs to Us," "A Thin Smattering of Applesauce," "Part of Eve's Discussion," and "Recovery," which is excerpted below.
You have decided to live. This is your fifth
day living. Hard to sleep. Hard to eat,
the food thick on your tongue, as I watch you,
my own mouth moving.
kfan's review against another edition
4.0
08/11/2010
Wasn't my favorite Marie Howe collection. Revisit in a few years.
UPDATE 11/25/2012
So glad I tried this one again, as expected I found a lot more to love here this time. Favorites included:
Part of Eve’s Discussion
"very much like the moment, driving on bad ice, when it occurs to you your car could spin, just before it slowly begins to spin"
From Nowhere
"a day comes, when you say what all winter / I’ve been meaning to ask, and a crack booms and echoes / where ice had seemed solid"
What Belongs To Us
"Not even the blisters. Look."
Recovery
"Is this how they felt after the flood? The floor / a mess, the garden ruined / the animals insufferable, cooped up so long?"
Gretel, from a sudden clearing
"deep into a wood / so darkly green, so deafening with birdsong / I stopped my ears"
Wasn't my favorite Marie Howe collection. Revisit in a few years.
UPDATE 11/25/2012
So glad I tried this one again, as expected I found a lot more to love here this time. Favorites included:
Part of Eve’s Discussion
"very much like the moment, driving on bad ice, when it occurs to you your car could spin, just before it slowly begins to spin"
From Nowhere
"a day comes, when you say what all winter / I’ve been meaning to ask, and a crack booms and echoes / where ice had seemed solid"
What Belongs To Us
"Not even the blisters. Look."
Recovery
"Is this how they felt after the flood? The floor / a mess, the garden ruined / the animals insufferable, cooped up so long?"
Gretel, from a sudden clearing
"deep into a wood / so darkly green, so deafening with birdsong / I stopped my ears"
eli_h's review against another edition
4.0
Religious, spiritual, and real. Marie Howe moves her words across the page like her long hair flows down her body. The Good Thief is a small book full of life and fear and death and awe.