Long After Forever : A Love Story

Rating:
Summary: TRULY UNIQUE telling of a familiar story.
Review: The great experience of the old time radio adventure shows was that you listened and let your own imagination carry you through a story. With Mr. Albee's powerful from-the-heart words, you have the unique experience of reading and letting your own imagination paint the chapters of a love story. This is a book of poetry and the cover notes talk about "torching" the heart. Most of the thirty six poems do exactly that - torch the heart: you can't read them without your insides becoming inflamed with some kind of emotion. If anyone ever questioned a man's ability to express joy or hurt, Mr. Albee leaves no doubt. A reader will have no trouble finding one or more poems that will "hit the mark," to be read over and over and over (or to be passed on to someone special). I never thought I would recommend a poetry book, but I do recommend this one.

Rating:
Summary: A Five Star Gem!!
Review: There are all forms of poetry and Albee uses some, abuses others, ignores some, enhances others, refusing to be locked into any set-schemes - but who cares. When you start reading this gem, emotion overshadows all other concerns. Free style: yes. Metered: yes. Elegiac: not in the strict sense of the poetic definition (alternating hexameter and pentameter lines) but most surely in the moods expressed. And that's when you can't help but care - a story unfolds and grips you and then lets you decide how it eventually ends - in despair or hope. That answer may depend on whether you ever loved.