Mysteries of Small Houses (Penguin Poets)

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful experiment in Tracking Self
Review: Alice Notley continues to explore the state of the "I' in the poem. This book concentrates on the intersection of memory and biography, what the memory brings to light and what the poetic self creates from that experience. In a linear sense, the series of poems explores Notley's early childhood, school at Iowa, marriage to poet Ted Berrigan and raising two small sons while continuing to write and experiment in New York City. It's interesting for the poet's memories alone, but it's also Notley's dialogue with how the "I" historically has been used in the poem. It's exciting to read Notley's work and to see her continually push the boundaries of her poetics.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful experiment in Tracking Self
Review: Alice Notley continues to explore the state of the "I' in the poem. This book concentrates on the intersection of memory and biography, what the memory brings to light and what the poetic self creates from that experience. In a linear sense, the series of poems explores Notley's early childhood, school at Iowa, marriage to poet Ted Berrigan and raising two small sons while continuing to write and experiment in New York City. It's interesting for the poet's memories alone, but it's also Notley's dialogue with how the "I" historically has been used in the poem. It's exciting to read Notley's work and to see her continually push the boundaries of her poetics.

Rating:
Summary: Accomplished and moving
Review: An accomplished and moving book, Mysteries of Small Houses shows Alice Notley writing at the top of her form. Her autobiographical poems are rich and detailed, with an immediacy of attention that derives from her roots in the second-generation New York school, and which is used here to show the reader what it was like to have lived, at no small cost, a life dedicated to poetry. There's a highly individual sensibility at work here, and an admirable one.

Rating:
Summary: The worst book that I have ever read.
Review: My professor gave us an assignment- read this book and write a review paper. Writing the paper almost caused me committed suicide. I would read million times of Emily Dickson's poetry and never feel tired.Never!!! But I can't stand Alice Notley's book. The only thing that I learned from her is she's a very self-centered person. And she made me get lost over and over when I was reading her poetry. My classmates said, "How I goanna write a paper about her. She's SUCKS!!!" And I agreed with them. I felt sorry for myself : spent $14 on her book.