The French Exit

by Elisa Gabbert

"What a complex and lovely book this is! Reading Elisa Gabbert's obsessively interior, technically rigorous poems is like listening in on the thoughts of a mind so fiercely observant and subtle that I find in them always some new twist, some surprising layer I hadn't noticed before. By turns moving and witty, sharp-eyed and impressionistic, Gabbert writes with technical sophistication and keen intelligence. This is a terrific book"--Kevin Prufer.

Genres: Poetry

69 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2010

About the author

Elisa Gabbert writes the On Poetry column for the New York Times and is the author of six collections of poetry, essays, and criticism, including Normal Distance; The Unreality of Memory & Other Essays; The Word Pretty; L'Heure Bleue, or the Judy Poems; The Self Unstable; and The French Exit.

Reviews

[Heather Gibbons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hesitating between 3 and 4 stars here, but I'll round up. My hesitation is due to the second section of the collection, which I didn't think was *as* strong as the rest. I might be sorta turned off by the very notion of blogpoems, I admit it, though these have an engaging spontaneity to them, and they're funny and playful, which is cool. But anyway, let's talk about just how good this collection is overall! I mean, fantastic. These are complex ideas, shrewd insights, surprising, fresh turns and all in this wonderfully bad-ass voice. I trust this voice. I admire its cracked authority. And the thinking is smart, smart, smart. Wonderful control of sound elements (she totally gets how to use end rhyme), surprising, smart lineation, and searing endings. I look forward to seeing where her work goes from here.

[Sampson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book marks the dawn of the Badass School of Poetry. Fear and desire get turned inside-out through Gabbert's language gyre (panic has never been so beautiful or funny). Great writer's write the way we think-- lucky for us, Elisa Gabbert happens to think super cool.

[hh · Rating 3 out of 5]

smart poems & interesting language.

[Laure Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Skillfully written, this book teeters between sharp comedy and full blown tragedy. An acidic widowed mother and developmentally arrested adult son are driven from their decadent lifestyle in New York's Upper East Side by self-inflicted scandal and potential bankruptcy.

They flee to Paris by cruise ship…and take their aging cat along for the bumpy ride. Lest you think this was an act of kindness towards the cat, let me hasten to add the mother believes that her late husband's spirit inhabits the cat and she's afraid to desert it.

The characters they encounter and bring into their imploding lives are also deeply flawed and fascinating. It ends in yet another tragedy, of course. I really wanted an epilogue with a ray of sunshine attached, but there is not one.

All said, this book had my attention throughout. I give the author full marks for skill and imagination.

[Timothy Sikes · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked her "blogpoems" here. Once again, I like the ideas Gabbert explores!

POEM WITH A SNOWMAN

You must think of the thing to regard it, and this ruins the effect: thing absorbs your gaze; the heat

transfer from your brain waves excites, starts to melt it like a wicked queen. See the ice trees shimmer and drip

as they shrink. See the forest level sink as its new form is shunted invisibly up to the sun. Photosynthesis in reverse:

it makes a creepy sound like a suction cup pulled off a mirror. Try to do this without watching yourself do it

in the background. Impossible- the mirror always knows. Think nothing and you're still not thinking nothing.

[Kathy Micek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hmmmmm..... suggested by my daughter, KSB. Very weird and laugh out loud CRAZY.

[Claudi · Rating 4 out of 5]

a perf debut book with a perf title

[Whitney Durham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super quickly but good.

[Tracy · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems are full of movement and emotion. When I bought the book a friend said they would blow my mind. Yes.

"When the boredom hits,
I hit the boredom

like a glass door. Oh my god,
what am I for? I would throw

a game of solitaire;
I would throw myself

off the trail."

I felt like I was reading the poems as they were posted in the hyperaware the blogpoem section.

"P.S. Like my love for you,
like the infinite crystalline watchface of
God of the sky, my email will never die."

I want to hear these read. They are very smart, but have a conversational quality that makes listening to them as joyful as reading them.

[Benjamin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems whose lines flit intelligently back and forth between concussive moments of realization. I turned the pages with a kind of shapeless awe, pleasure, and ended, as the poems do, in startled, confident uncertainty.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of those collections that sends you back re-reading certain poems, stanzas, couplets that linger among your thoughts and beckon to be brought back to the forefront. All the adjectives that get applied to excellent poetry should be applied to these as well.

[Mark Stratton · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating collection of poems. Three sections, each with their own flavor and high points, that are worth reading and savoring. Highly recommended.

[YL · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dig the sort of surrealism not really the theme

[Marissa Fandel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always fun to read aloud, a heartfelt and scathingly honest (though tenderly hopeful) book of poetry and prose.

[Vincent Scarpa · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK, so Elisa Gabbert might be my favorite living poet.