Reviews

Poets at Work: Interviews from The Paris Review by Vijay Seshadri

readingoverbreathing's review

4.0

"In any case, do we read poetry because we're interested in 'themes'? Or do we read it to learn about someone's view of the world? To find out if the poet we're reading sees things the way we do?"

I received this for free with my Paris Review subscription, so I wasn't particularly motivated to pick it up. But I had it, and I do love The Paris Review, so how could I not?

And I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed this — it's so well-edited and really does cover a great range of twentieth-century American poets. I learned so much from this collection, and I also have to say that I haven't been inspired to write like this in a long time, which I think is a real credit to this collection.

I could have done without some of the male bravado here (somehow the white male writers' interviews were so much longer than their counterparts), but, overall, I really did find this interesting, particularly as a glimpse into The Paris Review's storied past.