Griffin

by Albert Goldbarth

Cultural Writing. Essays. For over two decades now, Albert Goldbarth has been cultivating his own hybrid essay variety. A marriage of warmth and intelligence, his essays are narratively driven but poetically lyrical, and openly personal while remaining dedicated to the pleasures of arcane research. "These are a whole new breed," Robert Atwan writes. "Albert Goldbarth has spliced strands of the old genre with a powerful new gene_ and the results are miraculous." In Griffin--that crossbred creature comprised of eagle, lion, and serpent--Albert Goldbarth joins two essays to form one animal. "Roman Erotic Poetry," written on the cusp of a friend's divorce, explores that strangely compound beast we call marriage. "Wuramon," written on the cusp of a friend's struggle with cancer, considers that strangely compound being every one of us an amalgam of spirit and physical body. The resulting book is eccentric, learned, and moving.

87 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2007

About the author

Albert Goldbarth is an American poet born January 31, 1948 in Chicago. He is known for his prolific production, his gregarious tone, his eclectic interests and his distinctive 'talky' style. He has been a Guggenheim fellow and won the National Book Critics Circle award in 1991 and 2001, the only poet to receive the honor two times. He also won the Mark Twain Award for Humorous Poetry, awarded by the Poetry Foundation, in 2008.

Goldbarth received his BA from the University of Illinois in 1969 and his MFA from the University of Iowa in 1971. He is currently distinguished professor of Humanities at Wichita State University, and he teaches in the Low-Residency MFA program in Creative Writing at Converse College.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Griffin is a tricky essay. First off, it’s actually two essays – “Roman Erotic Poetry” and “Wuramon,” both previously published in periodicals independent of each other – that are only tangentially related thematically and share no common characters or concrete images. The loose thematic connection they have is that they both contextualize human conflict as the (possibly vain) struggle to reconcile our dual nature, hence the griffin metaphor (although only the first essay uses the griffin explicitly).

The first essay commingles the breakups and possible hookups of Goldbarth’s close friends with, among many things, the dirty poetry of the ancient poet Catullus, philosophical musings on the institution of marriage, Bruce lyrics, and of course the griffin legend. I finished the first essay stunned at Goldbarth’s ability to synthesize his material and also strike some truly human chords. The second essay loosely continues with the examining our binary nature, but it doesn’t have the focus or development of the first. I have to say, I think the piece would work better simply as the first part titled Griffin, dropping the other essay and the do-nothing “Roman Erotic Poetry” title. But then of course, this “book-length essay” would be only 59 pages.

[Amelia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think Goldbarth is a fucking cutie. Just heard him read at NonfictionNOW!!! at the Graywolf Press reading. Smart and ever-the-word-creating stylist, I'd follow him anywhere. That said, I think Griffin packs a bit less of a punch than his essays in Many Circles. The mythology metaphor of the Griffin is expected to carry a lot of weight in this long essay and I find that it neither supports, balances out, nor lucidly illuminates the obscured personal narrative as well as some of his former research subjects have. Still though, it's pleasant and contains plenty of fodder for tangents of one's own. The hoax of the Figi Mermaid, for instance. But you know where my allegiances lie.

[David LeGault · Rating 2 out of 5]

Language was interesting, the premise was interesting, but the act of reading it was fairly meh...