Reviews

Spoon River Anthology: Edgar Lee Masters by Edgar Lee Masters

devito34's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Poetic and tragic.

janetval's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark reflective

3.5

ginevrapiteraa's review against another edition

Go to review page

reflective relaxing slow-paced

4.5

partypete's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

surprising and experimental. I’m in the area where this book was written, so I’m reading this as a form of radical tourism

letitiaharmon's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

A non-traditional take on poetry, these short, fictional memoirs are so poignant and perfect. Masters has sewn together a fictional community that becomes so real within the pages you almost feel you are reading true testimonies, all of which are amusing, probing, and rich.

sidechick96's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

the poems were 10/10 but the italian translation felt incorrect at times, so I cannot give this particular edition 5 stars

sarahmcsarah's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

If I could rate this in parts, I'd give the first half five stars, the second half four stars, and then the epilogue thing three stars (two of those stars being for sheer randomness and confusion. Really? Loki? I know it's supposed to represent something, but still...). This was in parts beautiful, sorrowful, and downright depressing. It exposes Mayberry as the Midsommer it is (if you understood that reference, let's be friends.).

upward_not_northward's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

One of the most unique books I have ever read. As someone who enjoys wandering around cemeteries thinking about the lives of people who have been reduced to engravings on headstones, this was right up my alley.

jselliot's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Probably one of my favorite poetry collections, but it does not shy away from heavy-hitting accounts of people's lives - even reduced to short verse.

However, I must offer my sympathies to Nellie Clark.  One of the headstones has the deceased baring that she was a victim of CSA at 8 and the perp was 15. The town considered her broken goods, so she married an outsider that moved in and didn't know ... except when he found out, he abandoned her and it is pretty much presumed that she died that winter based on the lines. 

tonikayk's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Read this in High School, and even visited the cemetery in Illinois. (I took a date, he was confused.)