Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)When I started reading, I was disappointed. It's not that the first few poems were bad, but they revisited themes that Mr. Levine had already done well. Detroit was still smoke filled, growing up was clumsy - even if youth passed to quickly, small things made a difference. It seemed that this book was going to be What Work Is - Part II.
And then I read "Salt and Oil" and then "The Sea We Read About" and "The Unknowable." Wow! Incredible writing. I just sat and looked at the page, not even considering that there were other poems I had not yet read. I wanted to let each of them sink in and take root before letting go. I would have paid three times the price for these, and there are more like them. The images are haunting and the Levine's art becomes increasingly impressive with each reading.
What stays with you is the empathy. Philip Levine's feeling for his subject goes beyond astute observation and penetrates to the heart of the subject. There is a respect for the people and places he writes about. There is a recurring dignity to his subjects.
Philip Levine shows what it means to carry an American voice in modern poetry. It's a voice worth hearing, and the echoes will stay with you.
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