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jordanjones 's review for:
Stag's Leap: Poems
by Sharon Olds
Sharon Olds' Stag's Leap is a book of poems about the author's divorce. It received much acclaim, including winning the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 2013.
But I have to say that it is by far the weakest book in her oeuvre. Satan Says, her first book, was like a series of firecrackers, every poem a veritable explosion. In this book, almost every poem is a dud. The poems are leaden; they lack depth and range. She reveals an amount of self-absorption that is downright embarrassing. The poems say that both she and her friends think she has been maudlin too long. I can't agree more. There are phrases and even whole poems that possess power and are worth reading, but they are few and far between.
The fact that this was deemed the best book of poems by the Pulitzer committee in 2013 is a reflection that politics plays more of a hand than quality in literary awards.
But I have to say that it is by far the weakest book in her oeuvre. Satan Says, her first book, was like a series of firecrackers, every poem a veritable explosion. In this book, almost every poem is a dud. The poems are leaden; they lack depth and range. She reveals an amount of self-absorption that is downright embarrassing. The poems say that both she and her friends think she has been maudlin too long. I can't agree more. There are phrases and even whole poems that possess power and are worth reading, but they are few and far between.
The fact that this was deemed the best book of poems by the Pulitzer committee in 2013 is a reflection that politics plays more of a hand than quality in literary awards.