The Country Between Us

published	April 30th 1982 by Harper Perennial
binding	Paperback
isbn	0060909269 (isbn13: 9780060909260)
pages	64
date added	03-20-07 edit book

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Alison rated it:

03/02/08

Read in March, 2008

I shouldn't really be rating this because I don't know a damn thing about poetry, but I enjoyed it (what does that mean, anyway, to say that we enjoyed or didn't enjoy something that we don't really understand, or against which we have a prejudice? I don't read poetry because 1. I don't know anything about it, and 2. I don't like it, but which came first? I pose it as a conundrum but it's not difficult: I don't like things I don't understand, which is obvious, and I do find that when I attemp...more I shouldn't really be rating this because I don't know a damn thing about poetry, but I enjoyed it (what does that mean, anyway, to say that we enjoyed or didn't enjoy something that we don't really understand, or against which we have a prejudice? I don't read poetry because 1. I don't know anything about it, and 2. I don't like it, but which came first? I pose it as a conundrum but it's not difficult: I don't like things I don't understand, which is obvious, and I do find that when I attempt to understand something that initially eludes me, I find myself liking it more and more, like _Cambridge_ last month; regardless of all that, though, even if I do find that I've come to understand this book, and to like it, it doesn't say anything about the merits of the book itself, but rather, about my grappling with my own 1. ignorance, and 2. limitations in taste. Ignorance can be improved by study and effort, but limitations in taste? I don't know. I rather pride myself on my broad and intelligent taste, and I'm dismayed by my narrowness wrt poetry). Anyway. I picked this up in an attempt to broaden my reading choices a little, but not too much; I'd read "The Colonel," of course, and so was expecting a kind of prose poemy style. Which the rest of the collection doesn't have, but her poetry in this volume should still be very accessible to people who are accustomed to reading 20th century personal prose--it's written in sentences, and I dig sentences. So, it's accessible (to me), and it's like reading a novel with wide margins, and I love the stuff about the pitfalls of identifying yourself with the political causes you take on. And like Forche's narrator (god, does this kind of poetry HAVE narrators?), I believe that while it's necessary to be aware of the limitations of your identification (just because you care about war in El Salvador does not make you a victim or participant of the war in El Salvador), that is never, ever an excuse not to attempt to identify (just because you're not a participant or victim of the war in El Salvador doesn't mean that you're let off the hook--you must care, and you must engage with it).

So, did I wind up broadening my reading? I don't think so. I found something that suited my tastes as they already were. But that's fun too....less

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The Country Between Us

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