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motifenjoyer's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
4.0
"I wanted to watch my father die
because I hated him. Oh, I loved him,
my hands cherished him, laying him out,
but I had feared him so..."
but I had feared him so..."
kweekwegg's review against another edition
4.0
This has a sampling of each one of Olds' books, which I now suspect is not the best way to introduce oneself to a poet. I fell in love with several poems along the way, particular in the first few books of the collection, and I managed to frustrate my conception of Olds as hard and overly stark (which was the fault of only reading her few anthologized poems); but I eventually grew bored and frustrated with the same voice, I think because I wasn't experiencing them in any other context. I plan on picking up one of the individual books in the future, hopefully to get a more digestible experience.
sam8834's review against another edition
5.0
Why I'm only now reading Sharon Olds for the first time is beyond me. Really fantastic selected works collection, engaging all the way through, and has definitely turned me into a fan.
graywacke's review
5.0
I'm thinking of all the different wonderful things I got out of this. Her poems on being a parent of young children were striking & memorable and something I could relate to on several levels. Her latest poems here are quite complex and would benefit, I imagine, from a closer reading. I worked through these all at quite fast pace.
alltogethernow's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
fast-paced
4.0
First poetry book. I find Sharon Olds poems very accessible. Liked a lot of them
wandering_not_lost's review against another edition
2.0
I love her way with words, her pacing, her tone, her imagery. But her focus on sex and sexual organs (even, pseudo-creepily, when the topic of her poem is her father, or her children) just gets boring after awhile. If she wrote a book with another theme, I'd be all over it.
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