What He Did in Solitary: Poems

by Amit Majmudar

The prize-winning poet reflects on what sustains us in a sundered world.

With his dazzling ability to set words spinning, Amit Majmudar brings us poems that sharpen both wit and knives as he examines our life in solitary. Equally engaged with human history and the human heart, Majmudar transfigures identity from a locus of captivity to the open field of his liberation. In pieces that include a stunning central sequence, Letters to Myself in My Next Incarnation, the poet is both the Huck and Jim of his own adventures. He is unafraid to face human failings: from Oxycontin addiction to Gujarat rioting, he examines--often with dark comedy--the fragility of the soul, the unchartability of pain, and the reasons we sing and grieve and make war. All-American and multitudinously alone, dancing in his confinement, Majmudar is a poet of exuberance and transcendence: What I love here, / Poems and women mostly, / I know you can't remember, he tells his future self. But they were worthy of my love.

Genres: Poetry

176 pages, Hardcover

First published August 18, 2020

About the author

Amit Majmudar is the author of The Abundance, Partitions, chosen by Kirkus Reviews as one of the best debut novels of 2011 and by Booklist as one of the year’s ten best works of historical fiction. His poetry has been published in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Best American Poetry 2011. A radiologist, he lives in Columbus, Ohio.

Reviews

[Jeanette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't read much poetry because I feel like I'm not smart enough to appreciate it. The poems that I understood in this book were very good though.

[Shradha · Rating 4 out of 5]

the last sequence is stunning. but some context would be great. can you explore confinement, solitary prison ethically without having been a prisoner or knowing someone who is? i think he does it brilliantly and it seems personal. there isnt someone it is dedicated to. was the poet incarcerated at one time?

[Sara Leigh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Majmudar is both cerebral and playful. The poems in this collection are diverse in subject, emotion, style. In one that I particularly liked, he basically just plays with words and rhyme along a meandering path. He also has written novels, so I may have to check them out.

[Jan Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this poetry book because it's by Ohio's first poet laureate. He graduated from the same high school as my sons. I enjoyed his poetry. I believe my favorite poem in the book was "The Adventures of Amit Majmudar."

[Shiv Majmudar · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A masterful poet."

- Shiv Majmudar

[Cody Stetzel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perfectly nice poems but lacking for what I wanted in this moment.

[Stacy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh.