Oppen: A Narrative

by Eric Hoffman

"Hoffman's narrative explores in considerable depth Oppen's thinking about his own work, his reasonings and judgments on himself and his contemporaries in life, politics and poetry. Throughout, Hoffman supplies a rich contextual background to the Oppens' story, one in which public and private life continually intersect not only in the socio-cultural aspects of their lives but in the undergirdings of love, hope and guilt that empower the thought and poetry ...Complex, highly-nuanced and well-documented, Hoffman's narrative makes clear that few careers in modern poetry are so entwined with biography as Oppen's." -From Michael Heller's introduction.

252 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2013

Reviews

[Alix · Rating 3 out of 5]

After waiting years for a biography of Oppen, I was disappointed in this book. Much of the "narrative" consists of information obtained from Oppen's FBI files and reads like a list of who he knew or was affiliated with. Overall, I found the presentation dull. I wanted to get a sense of Oppen's personality and essence, but by the end of the book, I still didn't really have a sense of who he was.