Life with Sam

by Elizabeth Hutner, Rafael Campo

The collection is Liz Hutner’s powerful testament to her son, Sam, bravely battling leukemia. The quietly eloquent photographs by Hutner’s brother and Sam’s uncle, Simeon Hutner, beautifully enhance this portrait of intimacy and courage. The poems do not shy from the gritty details of the medical ordeal the mother faces with her son. But there are many glimpses of joy, too, often found in the ordinary moment of childhood, so few of which Sam is permitted to know.

Genres: Poetry

59 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

Reviews

[Barbara Purington · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met the author, Liz Hutner, in 1977, the year she taught at Darrow School in upstate N.Y. I believe she had recently graduated from Yale University where she'd studied English Lit. and Latin. I was in awe of her, the Golden Girl from Princeton, N.J. who came from an academic family. She grew up with advantages, attended good schools which ensured her a solid future. When I knew her, she was an accomplished craftsperson, a weaver. She could jitterbug like a pro with another Yale alum on the school faculty. I figured it was a skill all Yale grads had perfected. Liz was low-key and kind of quiet the short time I knew her. I sensed she wasn't thrilled with the all-consuming job of teaching, coaching and being a dorm parent to teen girls at the outdoorsy boarding school. I thought she would rather be spending her time in a studio, working at her loom, weaving. She resigned at the end of the school year, returned home to teach at Princeton Day School. When I came across a bit about her on-line, I followed the trail, and was devastated to learn she lost her firstborn, Sam, to Leukemia. Years later, Liz succumbed to breast cancer at the age of 54, survived by her second husband and another young son. I ordered a copy of Life with Sam, read her poems, all the while weeping and sobbing. How could these multiple tragedies have happened: the terminal illness of her son, her marriage ending, caring for Sam as a single parent, her own terminal diagnosis and early death? How could fate have been so cruel to this Golden Girl who seemingly had been born into a secure, protected life? I learned she finished her doctoral thesis on John Donne and Latin poet, Horace, while dying from breast cancer; Princeton University posthumously awarded her a PhD. This feat summed up who Liz Hutner was: a determined, courageous, strong, devoted mother, scholar, poet, artist who packed an enormous amount of achievements into a life cut prematurely short.

[C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life with Sam is not the work of a master poet. The poems are good quality at best, but combined with the gorgeously quiet photographs and the story of Sam and Elizabeth's shortened lives, I found this book to be extremely touching. The lack of technical detail doesn't undermine the heart and openness of this book--something us academic poets should be reminded of often.