A Clown in a Grave: Complexities and Tensions in the Works of Gregory Corso

by Michael Skau

Using a number of critical approaches, Michael Skau examines Gregory Corso's complex imagination, his humor, and his poetic techniques in dealing with America, the Beat generation, and death. Skau covers the complete works of Corso, one of the four major Beat Generation writers (with Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and William S. Burroughs) who attempted to provide an alternative to what they saw as the academic forms of literature dominating American writing through the 1940s and 1950s. The Beat option focused on ordinary people, spurning the cultural pretensions of the intelligentsia and using common language as well as the rhythms of actual speech. Corso, abandoned as a child by his mother, subjected to a variety of foster homes, and imprisoned as an adolescent, became an authentic voice of America's neglected streetwise youth. He embodies much of the tension, confusion, and rebellion that emerged in America after World War II and eventually crested in the 1960s. Corso emphasizes social issues, yet risks undermining this significance by using wit, wordplay, and humor. While conceding mortality, he is adamant in refusing to acknowledge death's power. Even as he rebels against conventional literature, he still is enchanted by classicism and romanticism, often borrowing their techniques and idioms. Skau examines these complexities and seeming contradictions throughout Corso's career, showing that Corso finds value in inconsistency and vacillation. For him, as illustrated in the poems "Hair" and "Marriage," contradiction and ambivalence suggest the foundations of freedom of imagination. In spite of Corso's significance as an American poet, Skau's is the first extensive study of his work, including his fiction. Skau also provides the first complete bibliography of Corso's published work in more than thirty years.

Genres: Poetry

248 pages, Hardcover

First published September 10, 1999

Reviews

[Mat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I want to give this 3.5 stars, so rounded up to 4 stars.

First of all, the positives.

Any critical work on Gregory Corso, a most underrated poet, and there are not many out there in book form, is extremely welcome so I was already set to rate this high from the beginning.
Secondly, this book has several strengths - two great chapters which add significantly to the very minimal Corso scholarship, one on his use of humor and surrealism, and the other chapter on Corso's early but relatively unknown novel, The American Express. To my mind, Skau is perhaps the first person to really analyze this lost beat classic in any great detail. Finally, this is a big plus, and should NOT go without saying, it is written in a very clear, easy-to-follow, engaging style, refreshingly UNLIKE many of the other academic tomes you pick up, where it feels like you are trying to walk knee-deep through a swamp of sticky prose.

Now for the negatives.

Apart from these two wonderful chapters (chapters 4 and 6), the rest of the book was somewhat disappointing I must say. If you are completely or relatively new to Corso's work, you might find this book more revealing than I did. But for someone like myself who has been reading Corso's work for over 10 years now, and have read other critical books on him by Stephenson (a wonderful book called Exiled Angel, which is still the best introduction to Corso in my opinion) and Olson (more of an in-depth PhD dissertation on Corso's philosophy), then this book will not teach you anything you don't already know about Corso or his poetry or poetics. In fact, I frequently encountered sentences where Skau was informing the reader of very plain and obvious facts, such as how Corso uses a blend of archaic words and slang language. Any cursory look at any of his famous poems will immediately reveal this. So, in other words, much of the book was underwhelming (except for chapters 4 and 6).
Also, there were a few parts to his analysis where I couldn't help but feel that Skau was misunderstanding Corso. For example, when Corso adopts some archaic language and old-style sentence structures, or rhyme schemes, Skau comes down hard upon him. First of all, with the archaic language, I feel that Corso is somewhat following in the steps of Pound by 'making it new' - that is, bringing all the old and forgotten words back to life again. Secondly, why do modern-day Americans have a problem with rhyme? I mean sometimes rhyme can sound cheesy but when it is done well, it enhances a poem, IMHO.

So, all things considered, if you are new to Corso's work and interested in understanding his poetry better, I can recommend this book but for a shorter and what I believe is a superior introduction / primer to his work, read Stephenson's book first.

Finally, there is one more big advantage to buying this book - the bibliography of Corso's poems, including some hard-to-find, as yet uncollected works, are ALL listed in the latter half of this book, and as far as I know, this might be the only place where you can find a comprehensive bibliography of the street-urchin beat poet's work.