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megan_marlow's review against another edition
3.0
don't think i was in the right place to appreciate this while i was reading it and my lack of knowledge about classics definitely didn't help. there were definitely some lines that stood out to me and overall her poem about alienation in rome and her poem about emily bronte struck me as good, her essay at the end on gender and sound i found genuinely amazing and opened my eyes to an aspect of gender, relevant today, as well as how this presented it in classical life that i'd never thought of or heard of before
butchriarchy's review against another edition
4.0
I especially loved "The Glass Essay" which I had expected because I love Emily Brontë. It was interesting to read how she related to Emily and her work during such a tumultuous time in her life. I also enjoyed her musings on God. It's made me pensive; this whole work has given me things to think about.
carolineshurtleff's review against another edition
5.0
“The Glass Essay” is better than most novels.
“The Fall of Rome: A Traveler’s Guide” is better than most short stories.
“The Gender and Sound” essay is insane.
Anne Carson is so smart.
“The Fall of Rome: A Traveler’s Guide” is better than most short stories.
“The Gender and Sound” essay is insane.
Anne Carson is so smart.
kikibol's review against another edition
4.0
Loved the glass essay, enjoyed the book of Isaiah and reread the gender of sound 3 times because it is so powerful and important. Did not care for the Truth about God but Carson 's style and heart made this book to be one of my favorites. I will buy you all a copy for Christmas.
livjul's review against another edition
challenging
the glass essay is great, feels like my own thoughts when reading/writing, but the gender of sound is something I know I'll come back to again and again
ulknehs's review against another edition
4.0
Anne Carson has a brutal way with words, and I love it.
nreinhardt's review against another edition
5.0
All of this is great (crush on Anne Carson intensifies)
xterminal's review against another edition
1.0
Anne Carson, Glass, Irony, and God (New Directions, 1995)
Every review of Anne Carson's Glass, Irony, and God that I've come across since I read it myself has mentioned the book's first poem, “The Glass Essay,” and called it, in one form or another, the book's strongest work. (Some of them do this by mentioning only this piece, so I admit to some inference on my part there.) And I will add my voice to that chorus; “The Glass Essay” is the piece in this book that makes it worth your time. I didn't like it nearly as much as a number of other reviewers did, but it's interesting and holds the attention, if there are parts of it that don't really come off as poetry.
The book goes downhill from there, with each successive poem getting less poetic (and less interesting), until it lands at the bottom of the hole with the final piece, an essay (which at least makes no attempt to be a poem) called “The Gender of Sound”. I can praise it in one way-- it's one of the very few essays of its stripe that actually uses the word “gender” correctly, rather than as a substitute for the word “sex”. (You'd think I wouldn't have to point this out when the book is written by a classics professor, but I've seen so many professionals-- including professors-- misuse the word “gender” that it surprises me to see it used correctly no matter who's doing the using.) Once one actually dives into the essay, however, is starts off ludicrous and gets ridiculous from there, including an assertion that Hemingway was scared of Gertrude Stein because she was, of all things, a meat-eater. One would think Hemingway, hunter that he was, would be far more scared of vegetarians.
One Amazon reviewer calls the book “[c]ertainly better than the journeys she has made into poetry exclusively recently.” Which tells me to stay well away from those, at least. If you approach this as a book of essays, perhaps it will work for you. I had always heard it referred to as a book of poetry, and it misses that mark as widely as any book of poetry I've ever read. *
Every review of Anne Carson's Glass, Irony, and God that I've come across since I read it myself has mentioned the book's first poem, “The Glass Essay,” and called it, in one form or another, the book's strongest work. (Some of them do this by mentioning only this piece, so I admit to some inference on my part there.) And I will add my voice to that chorus; “The Glass Essay” is the piece in this book that makes it worth your time. I didn't like it nearly as much as a number of other reviewers did, but it's interesting and holds the attention, if there are parts of it that don't really come off as poetry.
The book goes downhill from there, with each successive poem getting less poetic (and less interesting), until it lands at the bottom of the hole with the final piece, an essay (which at least makes no attempt to be a poem) called “The Gender of Sound”. I can praise it in one way-- it's one of the very few essays of its stripe that actually uses the word “gender” correctly, rather than as a substitute for the word “sex”. (You'd think I wouldn't have to point this out when the book is written by a classics professor, but I've seen so many professionals-- including professors-- misuse the word “gender” that it surprises me to see it used correctly no matter who's doing the using.) Once one actually dives into the essay, however, is starts off ludicrous and gets ridiculous from there, including an assertion that Hemingway was scared of Gertrude Stein because she was, of all things, a meat-eater. One would think Hemingway, hunter that he was, would be far more scared of vegetarians.
One Amazon reviewer calls the book “[c]ertainly better than the journeys she has made into poetry exclusively recently.” Which tells me to stay well away from those, at least. If you approach this as a book of essays, perhaps it will work for you. I had always heard it referred to as a book of poetry, and it misses that mark as widely as any book of poetry I've ever read. *