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Mar 23, 2011

Meryl rated it:

This novel shook me. I read the whole thing in one sitting, all night and into the morning. Paints very nuanced, and disturbingly accurate, portraits of the different motivations that can drive one to write poetry... and in the end none of them seem entirely worthwhile. The characters, each in their own way, willingly sacrifice everything for their art and live isolated, anxious and bleak lives. Meanwhile in their work, the protagonist especially, and all of them fundamentally, must recognize p More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jan 26, 2012

Steve rated it:

This book was a real up and down for me. Not sure why she did not use Iowa City, given that she is the Director of the Writer's Workshop there. She does get the pettiness of the creative writing class down pat. My problem is with when she begins to write about the creative process, which is not an easy thing to do - and even harder when you do not provide us with examples of the characters' writing.
I picked this up expecting a bit more insight into the IWW, and a bit more on Bernard's po More...

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Oct 26, 2011

Ann rated it:

I'm ambivalent. This is a beautifully written book. I had some issues with it, and I'm not sure if they were my issues or the book's issues. I was challenged by the decision to tell the story through the POV of a character who can only see others insofar as they may or may not temporarily ease his abandonment issues. It's gracefully and accurately done, but it also left me with a heartbreaking sense of the unknowability of the other characters, both for the protagonist and for me, seeing through More...

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Mar 23, 2011

Julie rated it:

I am currently ruined by Jonathan Franzen, feeling that every novel, no matter how well written, is somehow only skimming the surface, where Freedom plumbs the depths. But on its own, and with its very lovely long title, All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost (AIFNIL) is a good read. Chang's writing workshop dialogues were painfully familiar, as were the characters' searches to find meaning and purpose in their desires to write. AIFNIL's feat is that it tells the story of people wanting to write -- More...

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Feb 12, 2011

Peter rated it:

This was an absorbing read for me, completed in a couple of sittings. And more than anything else, I admired the prose. Maybe it's because I've been reading a lot of long cram-in-all-the-#$%ing-wonder-of-life sentence writers lately, but the spare elegantly-crafted lines came as a refreshing surprise. I really felt like I was disappearing into the text, and emerging only when each section was finished.

The story, on the other hand, seemed a touch too refined for my taste. I appreciated More...

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Dec 31, 2010

Cheryl added it

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Nov 05, 2010

Vicki rated it:

Elegant, poignant, restrained. I have what I suspect is an obnoxious mild distaste for writers from writing programs - MFA or Iowa Writers Workshop, my mild distaste makes no distinction. It's not that I don't think writing is a craft, or that it can be taught, or that it's worthy of study. It's just that ... well, it seems from the outside like it's a conduit to the publishing industry, and I abhor networking and "connections." I guess my Platonic ideal of a writer is one who has More...

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Sep 11, 2010

Dlmoore83 rated it:

The cover led this book into my hands several times in the bookstore. Then a book club I belong to announced it as their September selection with a discussion with Lan Samantha Chang later in the month. Not wanting to be left behind, I quickly picked up my copy and began.

At first, it appeared to be a somewhat short, quick read. As i turned the first few pages, I soon realized it was much much more. Short in pages? maybe. Short on character, life commonalities and shared philosophi More...

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Aug 18, 2010

Ljuneosborne rated it:

I had an interesting experience reading this book. In the beginning I had doubts, as it seemed to be set up as a modern romance, and I wasn't sure if there would be anything else to the story. But that was just part one. Even in the beginning, the way Chang uses words caught me off guard at times. Words are strung together in charming ways, and I found myself re-reading sentences and smiling. This is a story of people whose lives revolve around poetry, told in delicate prose.

As th More...

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Aug 23, 2011

Melissa rated it:

When the author of the novel you're about to pick up is the director of the famed Iowa Writer's Workshop, you expect great things.

Fortunately, that's what you get with All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost.

This short, almost novella-length book was one that I saw on my library's New Books shelf, and I was intrigued by the title and Ms. Chang's credentials. (I confess, I have often wondered what it would be like to be a student at the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Some people dream More...

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Dec 18, 2010

Jackie rated it:

Three things:
--Ah, writing about writing. So easy to do poorly, so difficult to do well. This book wriggles through and past the usual obstacles to come uncomfortably close to success. Why uncomfortable? There were some things about Miranda that reminded me of one of my own undergrad creative writing teachers who is notorious for picking favorites, crushing spirits, and having people sign up in droves for her classes. So that was not so personally wonderful.
--To me, the best thing ab More...

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Oct 13, 2010

Lee rated it:

3.333 stars? A perfectly good short read. A long novella filled with radiant light, very serious poet men, and women whose hair often spools from its braids. The queer repetition (4x, at least) of the adjective "queer" either subtly or heavy-handedly (not sure which) suggested something about these two dudes -- maybe something about how, per Miranda, all memorable relationships in lit are unconventional? Character-wise: Roman, I disliked; Bernard, I didn't believe in; and Jorie Graham More...

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Oct 03, 2010

Olivia rated it:

This book is very well written. I think it has very few flaws - the story is good, the perspective is executed well, the characters are developed more or less well, and the writing is precise, spare, and sharp. I gave it three stars because although it was technically very good, I still don't think it has the potential to be a "great" book. But I enjoyed reading it, and read it very quickly.

--- FAVOURITE QUOTES ---
"He understood now, viscerally, something he had More...

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Mar 16, 2011

Molly rated it:

The writing is muscular, crisp--no wasted space here. I appreciated the good writing, though it also didn't glow.

In turn, there were four central characters, and of them, we only follow the overtly ambitious Roman, and tonight at book club, we were left wondering more about the quiet Lucy who sacrificed career for Roman's and for family. We also wondered more about Bernard, the Emily Dickinson reclusive character, and Miranda, the Jorie Graham thinly disguised.

This MFA More...

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Sep 08, 2010

Joy rated it:

Lan Samantha Chang's All Is Forgotten, Nothing Is Lost is a beautifully written novel about the lives of the poets. In this case, the poets are three members of a poetry writing program in a Midwestern university – a program not unlike (I suspect) the Iowa Writers' Workshop of which Chang is the director – and the poet-professor who influences their lives far beyond the seminar room.

The story is told in three major sections. We first meet Roman, Lucy, and Bernard in the poetry-wr More...

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Nov 01, 2011

Jan rated it:

I'm pretty sure that every character in this book is emotionally damaged or stunted. How else can you explain that they were all making such a big deal out of the fact that one of the characters had an affair with their mutual professor when they were in grad school? The student was in his late 20s at the time, so I can't imagine that there was anything terribly unethical about it, except for the fact that one of them was married.

I don't know, it just seemed like much ado about nothing More...

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Nov 17, 2010

Terryann rated it:

Chang, Lan Samantha. All is Forgotten, Nothing is Lost. 5CDs. 6 Hours. HighBridge Audio. 2010. ISBN: 978-1-61573-560-0 $26.95. F

The renowned Miranda Sturgis is the terrifying genius professor of poetry in Bonneville who 'bludgeons' her students with her critiques. Miranda the cold, aloof, distant, elusive. Roman is haunted by Miranda for long after their grad school affair, even as he becomes a professor and award winning poet. Read by Ramón De Ocampo who poeticises the work desp More...

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Jun 07, 2011

Emma rated it:

This book is so hauntingly beautiful! The intensity of the prose reads like poetry – see the little excerpt here below, a line I kept reading and rereading. The characters are very real, their feelings and emotion so aptly described and evoked. I felt drawn by these people all along, and read this book in one sitting. This is the sort of book after which the characters remain in you, you seem to know them like other acquaintances. How fascinating would it be to have such a writer leading your wr More...

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Nov 12, 2010

Danielle rated it:

The year is 1986; Roman, Lucy and Bernard are part of a seminar run by the feared and revered poet, Miranda Sturgis. Miranda is notorious for her harsh critiques ("bludgeonings"), yet Roman and Bernard find themselves vying for her attention and praise. As these four lives intersect over the course of twenty years, secrets are revealed, friendships are tested, and love is found and lost. Prevalent throughout the novel is the question of craft vs. talent in relation to writing. Can poet More...

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Oct 01, 2010

Jeannine added it

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Jun 20, 2011

Chrissy rated it:

Definitely not the oomph I was hoping for from the Director of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, especially given the irony of her subject matter! I almost wonder if her 0 degrees of separation held her back in this regard. The emotional tenor of the book felt very forced, with too many of the characters' internal struggles spelled out in expository rather than active scenes. So intent she was to make the characters archetypical, the characters didn't feel 'real.'

The book is short, barely More...

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Nov 30, 2010

Trent rated it:

Grade: A ... a near perfect novel; compact and poetic; a wonderful examination on the nature of creativity and craft, of ambition and drive at the expense of personal relationships; elegiac and atmospheric, haunting and beautiful; Chang writes elegant passages, seeking out that off-kilter angle, that aesthetic slant that defines what it means to have a "poetic education"; you will not like or approve of every character, you may not always understand their decisions and attitudes, but v More...

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Oct 02, 2010

Tara rated it:

Everyone in the Rumpus book club was crazy about this book, but I'm not sure why. None of the characters were believable or substantial (except maybe Bernard, who found fascinating, but only became a real character at the very end). Often, the main character would think or feel or say things that just didn't make any sense--I couldn't figure out what was motivating him (and I don't believe it was meant that way). I liked the last third of the book the best--it felt like that was the story she More...

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Jan 16, 2011

Shawna rated it:

Well written, but I'd only recommend this for a certain type of reader. Meaning, there is no better navel gazing than MFA navel gazing. This is written by an academic about academics, that seem to take themselves and their work entirely too seriously. In my opinion the best thing about writing seminars is how much I and my classmates/friends laughed--about ourselves, our work, our ideas. We weren't composing epic poems about Joliet and Marquette's journey to the Mississippi either. (Yawn) More...

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Feb 04, 2011

Wavelength rated it:

An exploration of youthful love and ambition and how life rarely turns out the way we envisioned. Roman, Bernard and Lucy meet in Miranda's poetry seminar. We meet them as college students who have the luxury of sitting around a seminar table drinking wine and critiquing poetry. We follow them in to middle age and divorces, death and memories of more vigorous days. Roman, the driven and focused poet who never wholly gave himself to another human being, Bernard the poet who spent a lifetime perfe More...

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Jan 27, 2011

Alecia rated it:

Even though I have never been in a writing program of any sort, I enjoyed this book. The characters in this short novel are mostly poets. It begins in a class/workshop with the revered teacher/poet Miranda. Roman and his friend Bernard are very gifted, and there are a group Roman calls "acolytes" as they whirl around and worship Miranda's every word. But so do Roman and Bernard who yearn, as the whole class does, for a crumb of approval or encouragement. This is part one," A Poeti More...

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Apr 26, 2011

Joo Ok rated it:

Patrice, this review's for you. Reading books like this is always self-indulgent, because as a grad student I like to know that fictional others are suffering through very particular experiences I'm familiar with - sitting in seminar with grad students, the trepidation of visiting and holding office hours, the dull pressure of knowing that your work's never quite finished, the relief of always finding something beautiful to read. As boring as it sounds, for me it's the pleasure of recognition. More...

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Nov 10, 2010

Leslie rated it:

I admired the language, technique, and spare elegance of this book more than I enjoyed reading it. I think it's important that we have a different narrative of poetry (and how it's written) - one that isn't steeped in our cultural fascination with extreme personalities (Bukowski, Plath, etc). And yet... I found the characters to be underdeveloped somehow. Maybe just familiar academic types?: the difficult, elusive professor that everyone wants to impress, the blocked, self-absorbed wunderkind More...

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Oct 11, 2010

BlackTar rated it:

raises interesting questions about writing and what the purpose of writing might be or should be. ultimately however, the whole thing left me feeling a little queasy, as it seemed there was no right answer and the very posing of the question made all the characters and even all writing itself seem solipsistic. i was more angry at rather than sympathetic to the characters. maybe that was the point. and it also made me realize how much i value story as something that can take you outside yourself. More...

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Feb 07, 2011

Sue rated it:

What I liked most was the view inside the poet's mind and process, through Roman (who is also the supreme asshole) and indirectly (through the eyes of Roman and Bernard), Miranda, and what we can know without seeing the actual work. The atmospheric details were also great. How well I remember the haze of cigarette smoke over the workshop table and the subsequent retreat to "the bar." Of course it is very tempting to speculate about the possible real-life equivalents of these poet proto More...

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