Jason's review of The Wasteland, Prufrock, and Other Poems

The Wasteland, Prufrock, and Other Poems The Wasteland, Prufrock, and Other Poems
by T.S. Eliot
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Jason's review
rating: 4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars4 of 5 stars
bookshelves: modernism
status: Read in January, 2003

T.S. Eliot takes a lot of work. I wouldn't recommend just plowing through The Wasteland on your own. It's the type of poem you only really understand when you discuss it in a group. If I hadn't studied it in a class in college, I'm sure I never would've understood it.

I would give 5 stars to Prufrock alone, and probably 3 or 4 to the rest. I especially loved Prufrock when I was single, b/c I think it captures the essence of male timidity. The language is oblique, but has some powerful contrasting imagery. And it boasts probably the best opening lines of all time: "Let us go now you and I, and watch the evening spread against the sky, like a patient etherized upon a table." That's the gist of it anyway. Never a more jarring simile than this.

I recommend Prufrock if you're up for a little challenge, and the Wasteland only if you're really ambitious.
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