Willy Loman’s Reckless Daughter or Living Truthfully Under Imaginary Circumstances

by Elizabeth A. I. Powell

Feminist perspective on Death of a Salesman through persona poems and hybrid/lyric essays.

2015 Robert Dana-Anhinga Prize for Poetry

“Elizabeth Powell’s theatrical book of poems plays out against the backdrop of Arthur Miller’s signature play, which is at once a guidepost and a foil for this drama of the self, this poetic meditation on the intermixed American family. Powell’s self-correcting poems are smart and high-spirited, vacillating wildly between feelings, between lyric and prose, moving in a short space from high comedy to dark grief. I can’t think of another book of poems that is quite like Willy Loman’s Reckless Daughter, which keeps bravely crossing ‘the line no one wants to write or live.’ ” — Edward Hirsch

Genres: Poetry

120 pages, Paperback

Published September 10, 2016

Reviews

[Angela Palm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powell has a powerful intellect and uses it to re-imagine and re-cast her life's drama here as Willy Loman's Reckless Daughter. There are so many surprises in these poems, unexpected metaphors, exquisitely rendered memories of her mad men-era father, astute connections between her life and drama. I love how she portrays a twinned self, doubled lives, selves within selves. And what of these different versions and their distinct, but separate truths? What does it all mean? Powell writes, as she considers the fourth wall, "I have a feeling that’s what drama is: / the line no one wants to write or live." Amen.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wicked smart, sharply insightful, and highly emotionally charged, I got into these poems, lost track of what was going on around me. Tight language, exact flow, this is some impressive writing.

[Jiapei Chen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m on a quest to read all the poetry books I’ve marked as “to read” on goodreads while I can still access my city’s awesome library system 🤠 I must’ve added this collection due to its connection to “Death of a Salesman”, a play that shocked and made me still think about it to this day ever since first reading it for my ESL class in high school (what impeccable taste, Mrs. Parris!). I loved the concept of embodying the nonexistent daughter from Willy Loman’s mistress, especially in poems from the last section. There were some more personal poems in the beginning that I felt could be more tied into this theme though.

[Kimberly Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raw. Amazing. Profound