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Summary: All You Need to Know
Review: This book changed my life.In my sophmore year of high school, my English teacher read "America," a vicious commentary on tha views of the majority in this country contained in this book, to my class. I didn't think about this peom again until senior year (though it had stunned my fellow classmates and I). Picking this great pocket edition up at my local bookstore, I had no way of realizing what kind of effect it would have on me. This book is full of some of Ginsberg's most classic works. His unorthodox style bleeds through the poems whether they are shorter, narrative odes to important figures in his life or sprawling, staggering, frenetic pieces which pull the extremes of life itself into the lines. Because of this book I am now persuing poetry in college. This should be required reading for Life in general.
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Summary: classic beat poetry...
Review: Kerouac believed that language in a novel (or poem, in this instance) should place the reader in the same frenzy as the author was in when it was composed. This philosophy is manifested in all the great works of the Beat Generation; Ginsberg, in "Howl," does it the best.
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Summary: Poets see hell through the eyes of angels
Review: I reread this little book before attempting to review it. I remembered that it was a mad mantra of transcendent power from the heart of hell, but I didn't remember how nondated it was. This work is fresher and more relevant than 99% of what passes for poetry today. How can something last nearly 50 years without going stale or becoming trite? How can it be even more real now? Maybe it is because Ginsberg ripped it live, screaming, and bleeding from a place beyond time and beyond space. He tore it from the living bowels of MOLOCH itself and showed it to HIM. After all, what does divine madness know of time? This poem is transcendence itself. It demonstrates that when you plunge into the deepest pit of hell it either kills you, or perhaps it burns out your insides so that you become a soulless zombie, OR you transcend it and rise howling to become a Mad Poet Saint who can truely encompass the Sacred in the Profane. Read this poem, and the others like America, A Supermarket in California, Sunflower Sutra, Wild Orphan, and In Back of the Real. It's almost frightening how relevant to daily life it is. If you didn't know it, you would never guess that it was written in the 50's. Of course Ginsberg does invoke, holy eternity in time holy the clocks in space the fourth dimension, in the Footnote. Maybe that's why it's timeless. As Cassady used to say, we know time, yes, we know time.... I wish I would have been there for that first public reading in San Fran with Kerouac running around the audience passing the wine jug. On all the planes, the Gods themselves must have jumped back in shock as a flaming monkeywrench of living poetry was jammed through the spokes of the great quivering meat wheel of conception....
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Summary: The definitive poem of Allen Ginserg and the 20th century
Review: Allen Ginsberg's epic poem, Howl, says so much about American society that it cannot be ignored or simplified. Ginsberg's views on America are still considered unorthodox and radical, but his observations both in the Hedonistic underground in the Baby Boomer-Leave It To Beaver 1950s, and his mentally ill friend Carl Solomon are as poignant as any poem written now, and represent a diminished sense of innocence in American culture, which predated feminism, the sexual revolution, AIDS, Reaganomics, ENRON, and even the full blown massacre of the Vietnam War. Very few poets have made an impact in writing now, but to me, Allen Ginsberg is the greatest poet of the last century, and easily had an impact on many writers today.
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Summary: Howl: Drug induced head-trip into the void...
Review: Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg is quite possibly one of the greatest American epics ever written. With its nightmarish violent and sexual imagery this will last forever. Let me just tell you if your new to Ginsberg (which I am not)I would recommend reading Reality Sandwiches or Kaddish first; if the overtly homosexual imagery in Howl doesn't bother you. Reality Sandwiches is a bit more toned down than Howl although in my opinion not better. Ginsberg's epic is a psychological drug induced (Ginsberg wrote Howl while under marijuana's influence) head trip into the minds of his fellow fallen hipsters and junkies. It is about a howl of defeat and a stench of death. If you are a beginning writer and\or wish to write w\more freedom I highly recommend picking this up not only for enjoyment but also for a style book of sorts because Howl shows how to free onesself in the literary sense (trust me I'm a published poet and have been reading Ginsberg for awhile he is one of my main influences). The first part (the actual poem Howl is divided into 3 not including holy, holy)is one long sentence never utilizing a period until the end. I could write a whole essay on Ginsberg but I'll leave you with the man, the myth, the legend; just pick up his work if poetry interests you and definently pick up Howl if you are not too sensitized. "...the mad man bum and angel beat in time; unknown, yet putting down what might be left to say in time come after death..."
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Summary: HOWL: The Soul of America
Review: Ginsberg's "Howl" is a raging, vibrant, dirty, sleepy and phosphorescent, as it captures the grime, the delight and the sway of American life. It is a gripping piece that thrusts the reader into the heat of the city, the purr of the suburbs and the spray of popular culture. It is one of the most remarkable products of the Beat generation, possesing the all-encompassing sprawl of Whitman and the raw cultural reflection of Morrison whil creating its own unique voice. It is a dynamic, raw, and beautiful representation of America, stuffed with discord, sweetness and the gorgeous raucous of Americn culture. It is a poetic counterpart to Keroac's narrative and a modern rendition of Whitman's "Song of Myself" as it bustles the reader on a fantastic journey accross America, diggin in crevices, moving through city streets and sitting on kitchen counters.
It sings, in free verse, the soul of America.
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Summary: HOWL: The Soul of America
Review: Ginsberg's "Howl" is a raging, sleepy, vibrant, dirty and phosporescent, as it captures the grime, the delight and the sway of American life. It is a gripping piece that thrusts the reader into the heat of the city, the purr of the suburbs and the spray of popular culture. It is one of the most remarkable products of the beat generation, possesing the all-encompasing sprawl of Walt Whitman and the raw reflection of Toni Morrison while creating its own unique voice. It is a dynamic, raw, and beautiful representation of America, stuffed with discord, sweetness and the the gorgeous raucus of American life. It is a poetic counterpart to Kerouac's nerrative as it bustles the reader on an increadible journey accross America, digging in crevices, moving through streets and sitting on kitchen counters.
It sings in free verse the soul of America.
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Summary: A Rant for all Times
Review: Allen Ginsburg, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlenghetti, Neal Cassady and the rest of the beats blazed a path across the country in the 50's from San Francisco to Denver to New York with all sorts of stops in between (to include Idaho of all places) and one of the real gems they left behind in Ginsberg's beautiful tome to madness and freedom, "Howl." This is perhaps some of the best language coming out of twentieth century American poetry. Its a nouveau re-creation of Walt Whitman jacking up the language benzedrine fueled but coming out on the other end not so much as a imitation but as some wholly new, exciting, and electric. I bought this book from the City Lights bookstore, Columbus Avenue, Little Italy, San Francisco. The bookstore and press started up by the beat Lawrence Ferlinghetti where there were wild at night readings. I'd recommend it for the experience, but if you aren't in local proximity of Baghdad by the Bay, the very next best thing is getting it right here on Amazon. It's pocket portable which is an important thing allowing you to bring poetry out where it was meant to be, into the world...carried in a backpack on hikes, carried in a book bag into the city, carried in, well a pocket, "dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix." It's a beautiful book with beautiful language. Don't be slighted by the critics, make up your mind for yourself. Just listen..."I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked...who poverty and tatters and hollow-eyed and high sat up smoking in the supernatural darkness of cold-water flats floating across the tops of cities contemplating jazz."
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Summary: Essentially mindless
Review: After reading this book, I am curious to why this book is so highly regarded. It seems that the only reason is because it became a bestseller after a judge had to rule on whether it was obscene or not. It isn't, of course. At least, to me. The problem with this book is its lack of interesting content. Ginsberg isn't necessary lacking in skill from a poetic/language view, but the problem is how you say words, how you organize them, etc., is only part of what makes good poetry. You can see Whitman's influence in Ginsberg. I'm not the biggest fan of Whitman, but at least Whitman had interesting things to talk about! Ginsberg's topics are boring, irrelevant to me. It's loaded with crazy talk that some may find interesting...but it lacks substance. There is not underlying value or ideas. The only ideas here are in his style, how he can twist words around to make them pretty or interesting sounding. Personally, I'd rather have language bring understanding than an impediment to understanding. I'm going to wait until the morning, and then read something else to bring back faith in the capabilities of language. If you do not care for content, and are more concerned with form, then by all means check out Ginsberg.
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Summary: Perfect in what it aims to be-A Beat Generation's epitaph
Review: Ginsberg, an American icon of poetry, delivers his full capacity in this short collection of poems. "A Supermarket in California" portrays a place where famous poets of past generations are shopping in convenience as they alienate Ginsberg and each other in their yielding to technology and progress. HOWL is full of unrealized cravings for something that never came. Ginsberg relates to his reader that instead of satisfaction at ideals being realized, he must find contentment merely in his own "nakedness." It's a stellar glimpse into a genius of words that has come through our times. It is a short read that any lover of words will appreciate.
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