Mary Karr’s steady narration of her poems is marked by the full-bodied enunciations of carefully crafted consonants and vowels. The works sound as if they are meant to share both the contemplative and the poetically humorous. She offers clarity in her narration, even if one doesn’t directly understand the content of each poem. Her work consistently makes religious references that play with one’s emotions. It is also metaphorical, witty, in-your-face blunt, and often suggests a rhythmic hint of lullaby tones. Some of the poetic journeys are curt, with sudden endings. There are so many great moments, for example, the “Obscenity Prayer,” which offers another take on the Lord’s Prayer and also wryly alludes to the Alcoholics Anonymous mantra known as the “Serenity Prayer.” T.E.C. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
A new volume of poetry from the New York Times bestselling and esteemed author of The Liar's Club and Lit.
Long before she earned accolades for her genre-defining memoirs, Mary Karr was winning poetry prizes. Now the beloved author returns with a collection of bracing poems as visceral and deeply felt and hilarious as her memoirs. In Tropic of Squalor, Karr dares to address the numinous-that mystery some of us hope towards in secret, or maybe dare to pray to. The ""squalor"" of meaninglessness that every thoughtful person wrestles with sits at the core of human suffering, and Karr renders it with power-illness, death, love's agonized disappointments. Her brazen verse calls us out of our psychic swamplands and into that hard-won awareness of the divine hiding in the small moments that make us human. In a single poem she can generate tears, horror, empathy, laughter, and peace. She never preaches. But whether you're an adamant atheist, a pilgrim, or skeptically curious, these poems will urge you to find an inner light in the most baffling hours of darkness.
A new volume of poetry from the New York Times bestselling and esteemed author of The Liar's Club and Lit.
Long before she earned accolades for her genre-defining memoirs, Mary Karr was winning poetry prizes. Now the beloved author returns with a collection of bracing poems as visceral and deeply felt and hilarious as her memoirs. In Tropic of Squalor, Karr dares to address the numinous-that mystery some of us hope towards in secret, or maybe dare to pray to. The ""squalor"" of meaninglessness that every thoughtful person wrestles with sits at the core of human suffering, and Karr renders it with power-illness, death, love's agonized disappointments. Her brazen verse calls us out of our psychic swamplands and into that hard-won awareness of the divine hiding in the small moments that make us human. In a single poem she can generate tears, horror, empathy, laughter, and peace. She never preaches. But whether you're an adamant atheist, a pilgrim, or skeptically curious, these poems will urge you to find an inner light in the most baffling hours of darkness.
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
BN ID: | 2940173613349 |
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Publisher: | HarperCollins |
Publication date: | 05/08/2018 |
Edition description: | Unabridged |