book data
208 ratings, 4.30 average rating, 12 reviews
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published
2007
(first published 1992)
by Alfred A. Knopf
literary awards
National Book Award (1991)
isbn
0-679-7405
description
National book award for poetry 1991.
"'What Work Is' gives a hymn-like quality to its eulogies and elegies. Levine's voice frequently blurs th...more
"'What Work Is' gives a hymn-like quality to its eulogies and elegies. Levine's voice frequently blurs th...more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 253)
Read in September, 2008
There’s an astonishing reverence for the tedious, repetitive work of the “common” laborer in Levine’s poems. He ignites the reader’s awareness of the everyday experience of human beings normally overlooked, raising those lives we take for granted to the level of something beautiful and sacred. Through hardcore detail and gifted insight, the poems soar beyond the stories they set out to tell. His narratives are full of surprising turns and revelations. They tend to be long and epic in ...more
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a really great poet originally from the east coast, however taught and lived in fresno for many years. he gets the central valley. he gets it good. beautifully calm voice, reads in long stanza form. the poems are almost like small vignettes, each a sort of story, reaching back or ahead into the still moments of time passed or maybe to come...handling, examining everying gingerly, with wise hands
favorite poems: fire, growth, agnus dei, gin.
favorite poems: fire, growth, agnus dei, gin.
"You have begun to separate the dark from the dark."
This line from "M. Degas Teaches Art & Science at Durfee Intermediate School" hints at the depths of Levin's poetry.
Suggestion: Check out Diego Rivera's famous "Industrial" murals, at Detroit Institute of Art while reading this book.
This line from "M. Degas Teaches Art & Science at Durfee Intermediate School" hints at the depths of Levin's poetry.
Suggestion: Check out Diego Rivera's famous "Industrial" murals, at Detroit Institute of Art while reading this book.
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recommends it for:
Anyone who has ever been a wage-laborer
This is a beautiful collection of sensitive, full hearted working-class poems. Read them. One of my favorites is a poem about Bobby Hefka. I can't remember the title exactly, but it's one of my favorites of all time.
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"You don't know what work is." Philip Levine's poems reconnect me to my working class background. They draw up all the emotion and struggle of survival. Confessional, autobiographical, and somehow universal...
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recommends it for:
anyone
One of the best by one of our best poets. He won the Pulitzer for THE SIMPLE TRUTH because the committee was so embarrassed at not choosing this one. A terrific book. Absolutely fine and true.
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If you own one book of contemporary poetry, this should be it. Great wit, insight, and depth. Ordinary language reveals extraordinary truths. And, in places, funny as hell.
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Read in November, 2002
recommends it for:
People
The title poem is enough, but then there's M. Degas. The rest is a joy, taken as a whole.
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Wonderful read by a wonderful poet. This man is deeply wise, he has mentored many.
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I like Levine. I think he and Hicok would write kick-ass collabrative work.
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