Pure Poetry

by Binnie Kirshenbaum

Meet Lila Moscowitz, a smart-mouthed, Jewish American beauty with a voracious appetite for sex, a remarkable talent for outrageous lies, and an unerring knack for screwing up her life. An accomplished poet, renowned for writing "smut and filth in terza rima," she goes about her life in Pure Poetry with enough attitude and verve to win your heart forever. But since fleeing the all-consuming passion of her marriage to Max, the sexy German, she can no longer compose so much as a couplet; ghosts have taken over her Greenwich Village apartment, and the contrast between her feelings for her present lover and her former husband is breaking her heart. And neither her best friend, Carmen, nor her cross-dressing analyst, Leon, is able to soothe her angst over her impending thirty eighth birthday, an occasion fraught with a thirty-seven year tradition of emotional devastation. But time waits for no woman, and the dreaded birthday does bring Love can be undone by the same desires that nurture it. Lila knows that she has got to take action, and in doing so she comes to realize some startling truths about herself, her capacity for love, and the nature of true freedom. Binnie Kirshenbaum's voice has been acclaimed by critics and readers alike. Already a bestselling author in Germany, Kirshenbaum demonstrates a brilliant maturity in Pure Poetry . Not since Erica Jong's Fear of Flying has a novel so captured a woman's heart and desires. Readers will cheer Pure Poetry for its heady mix of humor and sadness, and for its slyly unsettling visions of modern life.

Genres: Fiction, Jewish, Womens

208 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Binnie Kirshenbaum is the author of two short story collections, six novels, and numerous essays and reviews. Her work is noted for its humorous and ribald prose, which often disguises themes of human loneliness and the yearning for connection. Her heroines are usually urban, very smart, and chastened by lifetimes of unwelcome surprises. Kirshenbaum has been published in German, French, Hebrew, Turkish, and several other languages.

Kirshenbaum grew up in New York and attended Columbia University and Brooklyn College. She is the chair of the Writing Division of the Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts, where she has served as a professor of fiction for more than a decade.

Called, “a humorist, even a comedian, a sort of stand-up tragic,” by Richard Howard, Kirshenbaum has twice won Critics’ Choice Awards and was selected as one of the Best Young American Novelists by Granta Magazine. Kirshenbaum was also a nominee for The National Jewish Book Award for her novel Hester Among the Ruins. Her new novel, The Scenic Route, was published in May, 2009. Of the novel, Gary Steyngart says, “The Scenic Route is warm, wise, and very difficult to put down."

Binnie Kirshenbaum lives and works in New York City.

Binnie Kirshenbaum was born in Yonkers and grew up in Westchester County. After attending Columbia University as an undergraduate, Kirshenbaum earned her MFA at Brooklyn College. She taught at Wagner College before joining the faculty at the Writing Division of Columbia University's School of the Arts.

Reviews

[Derval Tannam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an easy read, but I didn't love it. There was such a focus on the Germans, specifically Nazi Germany, and, like my sister, I didn't understand how Lila could marry a German man, and still be hung up on him when he didn't sound particularly warm or loving. They had great sex and he was German- that's all we know. I enjoyed the friendship with Carmen and Lila's appraisal of children, but I couldn't believe her cold reaction to Leon.

[Ladyce West · Rating 4 out of 5]

Voltei a um livro que li no finalzinho do ano passado, Poesia Pura de Binnie Kirshenbaum, [tradução de Lourdes Menegale], publicado no Brasil em 2002. Cansada da mesmice dos best-sellers, este livro mostrou-se bom antídoto para o tédio. Não se trata de obra prima merecedora de prêmio, mas uma distração inteligente, com uma heroína pronta para seduzir essa leitora. Lila Moscowitz é tipicamente nova-iorquina, com um pouco mais de trinta anos, grandessíssima mentirosa que ocasionalmente racionaliza suas fábulas: “é um daqueles casos em que uma mentira personifica uma verdade maior. Uma verdade metafórica, porque a verdade literal serviria apenas para distorcer a realidade…” [15]. Poeta de sucesso, sem pudor na linguagem ou no sexo, encontra-se permanentemente estressada, sem poder escrever uma linha satisfatória, desde que seu casamento com Max terminou. Angustiada com tarefas cotidianas e vida amorosa insossa, quer ser especial, como qualquer heroína de Woody Allen ou Almodóvar e um pouco das mulheres de Sex and the City. Lila passa os dias pensando no casamento falido. Enquanto isso aproveitamos de pequenas e deliciosas reflexões cotidianas, em passagens até mesmo prosaicas, como uma visita a um hospital, que valem ser ressaltadas.

“É cruel, pensei, levar flores para pessoas que estão morrendo. É como se você estivesse apressando o funeral. Sem falar em esfregar no nariz deles a fragilidade da vida. Uma lembrança brutal de como uma coisa suave e fresca torna-se marrom nas bordas, o perfume se transforma em mau cheiro, tudo numa questão de dias. Os moribundos não precisam ter isso num vaso na mesa-de-cabeceira”[76].

Lila não quer a vida comum, porque ela é só “para os que não fazem questão do melhor.” Procura desesperadamente sentir-se especial, e aí está a fonte do desespero e a prisão em que se encontra. Definitivamente uma mulher contemporânea, que se imagina merecedora de muito mais do que o que consegue, vive correndo de lugar em lugar, de pessoa em pessoa, em círculo com assustadora velocidade, à procura do que parece inatingível: felicidade e satisfação consigo mesma. Lila é adorável na sua franqueza, mas às vezes cruel. Inteligente, ela mostra a desconcertante procura por uma felicidade inatingível.

Talvez seja o humor a característica mais encantadora deste livro, quer nas observações do dia a dia, quer nas justificativas que Lila encontra ou fabrica para si mesma, um sorriso é inescapável do leitor atento. Encontrei-me frequentemente suspendendo a leitura para poder refletir sobre o que acabara de ler, com a sensação de surpresa e diversão sobre o ponto de vista adotado. Fora isso, Poesia Pura é um livro sem maiores ambições, cuja grande virtude está no entretenimento inteligente.

[Maurits de Bruijn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jaren geleden werd ik verliefd op Un almost perfect moment (enorme aanrader) maar dit liet me, op de joodse grapjes na, onberoerd.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few interesting lines but mostly not.

[Kerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Binnie Kirshenbaum has destroyed me for reading other writers. I’m trying. But her timing is so impeccable and her words, hilarious and wrenchingly deep, well... it’s hard to move on.

[Emer Tannam · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

I enjoyed this book a lot. The main character/narrator is sharp, witty, and smart, but at times she veered into caricature which prevented me from caring for her as a real person. I didn't understand why she had married a German if she had such a problem with his nationality either, and that's the only thing we know about their relationship, which forms the emotional heart of the book. Her other love interest in an asshole, so it was hard to care about that either.

So a good read, but it didn't really make me feel anything.

[Fay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am so glad I discovered this writer while just browsing in the library. I LOVE her writing style. The main character in this novel is hard not to love, despite some serious flaws. Kirshenbaum is VERY witty and crazy smart. Only real complaints are that the ending gets too abruptly wrapped up. It didn't have the strength of the rest of the novel, and there are a few gaps I felt like needed filling in, in terms of the main character's obsessive relationship to Max. But overall enjoyed the book immensely. Kirshenbaum is definitely one of my new favorites.

[Nan Kirkpatrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked up this book because it looked like fluff. I love the classics and the pop icons as much as anybody, but let's face it--sometimes a girl needs some fluff. It wasn't what I expected at all. The characters are well-written, the story is lively and well-told, and this book is full of passages that are totally quote-worthy. And there is some serious insight going on in this book--but you could totally take it to the beach.

[Cecelia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. A few great passages, but separated by a lot of self-absorbed crap. I almost had to institute my rule - that you have to continue reading a book until (100 - your age). Luckily this book had a well-written passage circa page 70 to save it, or I would have dumped it earlier. The main character was fairly three-dimensional, but many of those facets were irritating. There wasn't really a beginning or a middle, and the end was premature and oversimplified.

[Marc · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brash and interesting, but not great. A lot of Jewish angst, which I can relate to.

[Jodi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very good book - I was pleasantly surprised. For all the women who have committment issues and place the blame of the failure of the relationship on the man - this one is for you.

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A- Hilarious book. A pathological liar's life, how she messes up love, and how she is a little bit nutty at times.

[Kristi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was an okay read - I never got attached to the main character - she wasn't all that likeable - but the story kept me interested enough to finish it.

[Gato Negro · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thirty-something Jewish woman's search for happiness. Well written.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOL!!!

[Renee]

It was work getting through this. Donated afterwards.