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The Cold War
100 Best Books of 2011, Publishers Weekly
2011 Notable Books, Academy of American Poets
From the powerful drama and formal boldness of "The Status Seekers" to the various theories of criticism in "The Nervousness of Yvor Winters," Kathleen Ossip's second collection takes up the crazed threads of modern experience and all its contradictions. Each poem, each new approach is an attempt to extract something concrete from an era not yet past. Yet as the poet probes and wonders, she gradually reveals another narrative, built on strangled emotion and subdued lyricism. The Cold War is jagged and thought-provoking. It questions the origins and premises of contemporary American culture.
2011 Notable Books, Academy of American Poets
From the powerful drama and formal boldness of "The Status Seekers" to the various theories of criticism in "The Nervousness of Yvor Winters," Kathleen Ossip's second collection takes up the crazed threads of modern experience and all its contradictions. Each poem, each new approach is an attempt to extract something concrete from an era not yet past. Yet as the poet probes and wonders, she gradually reveals another narrative, built on strangled emotion and subdued lyricism. The Cold War is jagged and thought-provoking. It questions the origins and premises of contemporary American culture.
- GenresPoetry
72 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 9, 2011
I'm not altogether sure what to make of this book-- ostensibly a book of poems, it's as much a piece of cultural excavation, mixing epigraphs from significant works of psychology and cultural writing of the 1950s with some prosey bits about what was actually happening at the time, few of the pieces collected here really read as poems. But they are interesting, and I really enjoyed them-- they are smart and moving, and while they are saved from being elegeaic-nostalgic by their critical apparatus and stance, they do inhabit that mid-century modern place that I know a lot of people really enjoy-- my buddy Peter Ramos, for one, would likely flip over this book.
This is another one of those books that aren't precisely poems, or don't work largely as poetry, a trend that I'm not altogether comfortable with; it reminds me a little bit of Zapruder's attempts in his last couple books to incorporate elements that aren't poetry. This, to me, works a little better, because in place of the attention to language, there's an attention to something else, excavation and a kind of argument that I do find interesting. But I still wonder about this stuff; if this is the bleeding edge of poetry (and again, I'm not sure it is), where does it mean poetry is going, and what is lost, as far as the expressive possibilities of language, if we leave the traditional interests (conceived in the broadest possible terms, as an interest in language's implicate order aside from content) of poetry aside. But who knows-- maybe it's a trend, and if it produces interesting books like this one, why would I complain.
This is another one of those books that aren't precisely poems, or don't work largely as poetry, a trend that I'm not altogether comfortable with; it reminds me a little bit of Zapruder's attempts in his last couple books to incorporate elements that aren't poetry. This, to me, works a little better, because in place of the attention to language, there's an attention to something else, excavation and a kind of argument that I do find interesting. But I still wonder about this stuff; if this is the bleeding edge of poetry (and again, I'm not sure it is), where does it mean poetry is going, and what is lost, as far as the expressive possibilities of language, if we leave the traditional interests (conceived in the broadest possible terms, as an interest in language's implicate order aside from content) of poetry aside. But who knows-- maybe it's a trend, and if it produces interesting books like this one, why would I complain.
August 6, 2012
Perhaps I don't understand American culture well enough. I found it difficult to get to the heart of this book. Just didn't get it. Too clever; too, well, plain cold. I can admire the way in which Ossip has structured this seemingly diverse collection of poems but that's about it.
June 15, 2015
Ambitious to the point of daring, beautiful and big and focused. It's different in tone and approach from the poet's other excellent books, and reinforces my belief that no one has a finer ear in contemporary poetry.
September 3, 2012
There is some beautiful language here and some interesting thoughts on the nature of poetry.
January 4, 2013
Hard to get through with the disjointed paranoia of the first sections, but ends strong.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews