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The Penguin Poets
Index of Women
From a "maestra of invention" ( The New York Times ) who is at once supremely witty, ferociously smart, and emotionally raw, a new collection of poems about womanhood
Amy Gerstler has won acclaim for sly, sophisticated, and subversive poems that find meaning in unexpected places. Women's voices, from childhood to old age, dominate this new collection of rants, dramatic monologues, confessions and laments. A young girl muses on virginity. An aging opera singer rages against the fact that she must quit drinking. A woman in a supermarket addresses a head of lettuce. The tooth fairy finally speaks out. Both comic and prayer-like, these poems wrestle with mortality, animality, love, gender, and what it is to be human.
Amy Gerstler has won acclaim for sly, sophisticated, and subversive poems that find meaning in unexpected places. Women's voices, from childhood to old age, dominate this new collection of rants, dramatic monologues, confessions and laments. A young girl muses on virginity. An aging opera singer rages against the fact that she must quit drinking. A woman in a supermarket addresses a head of lettuce. The tooth fairy finally speaks out. Both comic and prayer-like, these poems wrestle with mortality, animality, love, gender, and what it is to be human.
112 pages, Paperback
First published April 6, 2021
9 people are currently reading
937 people want to read
About the author
Amy Gerstler
33 books72 followersKnown for its wit and complexity, Amy Gerstler's poetry deals with themes such as redemption, suffering, and survival. Author of over a dozen poetry collections, two works of fiction, and various articles, reviews, and collaborations with visual artists, Gerstler won the 1991 National Book Critics Circle Award in Poetry for Bitter Angel (1990). Her early work, including White Marriage/Recovery (1984), was highly praised. Gerstler's more recent works include Nerve Storm (1993), Medicine (2000), Ghost Girl (2004), Dearest Creature (2009), which the New York Times named a Notable Book of the Year, and Scattered At Sea (2015), which was a finalist for the National Book Award.
Born in 1956, Gerstler is a graduate of Pitzer College and holds an M.F.A. from Bennington College. She is now a professor in the MFA writing program at the University of California, Irvine. Previously, she taught in the Bennington Writing Seminars program, at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and the University of Southern California's Master of Professional Writing Program. She lives in California with her husband, the artist and author Benjamin Weissman.
Born in 1956, Gerstler is a graduate of Pitzer College and holds an M.F.A. from Bennington College. She is now a professor in the MFA writing program at the University of California, Irvine. Previously, she taught in the Bennington Writing Seminars program, at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and the University of Southern California's Master of Professional Writing Program. She lives in California with her husband, the artist and author Benjamin Weissman.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
April 14, 2021
There is a lot of wit and lovely wordplay in these poems. Also an intriguing range of subject matter. Some interesting meditations on aging. Overall, a really fine book of mostly prose poems.
June 5, 2021
Amy Gerstler is the perfect cocktail of literary essence. Her poetry is like the most delicious plate of ice cream, but it never leaves you with a stomach ache or regret for overeating. It's a perfectly placed series of images, language that plays with each other, as well as a narration (in the prose) poetry that is genuinely moving. "Letters From a Lost Doll" is based on correspondence by Kafka to a little girl who lost her doll. Kafka told the little girl that the doll is not lost but just traveling. So, he sent letters to her as if the doll was dropping communication throughout her travels. Gerstler does the same in her version, and it's a remarkable presence of an object (doll) communicating with life. "Index of Women" has no weak points. Every poem fits into the picture, and it's a beautiful puzzle.
March 31, 2021
Priceless, ineffable, inspiring. Amy's rhymes and cadences echo long after you put it down.
June 22, 2022
How can you squeeze a universe into 80 pages or even write a review of such a book? Actually, it’s more like half a universe since these poems are about women through history and many who would never make it into a history book. But half of infinity is still an infinity is it not? See what I mean? Gerstler must have infiltrated my brain.
She does give us fair warning that our thoughts will be yanked hither and yon in the opening poem, “{from an introduction to some fragments of the Index of Women}.” The fragments she mentions make it clear there’s no one answer to anything, no way to define “women” because we’re so far more complicated than the sum of our atoms. Here’s a taste.
“…Envision, then, a text riddled with disputed
fragments, its breath smelling of cough drops,
mouthwash, and cigarettes, or instant coffee,
or gin, its hands shoved into oven mitts….”
Soon followed by
“For no reason we can find
the document includes a selection
of cheerful seasonal songs
and several attempts to describe
the sounds made by wind chimes….”
Gertstler stirs a delicious blend of doom and gloom (about aging, death, the ruination of our planet) with quirky, wry humor. How else would we hold onto hope or care whether
we write or read another book?
Here are a few more tastes. Sometimes half the fun is in the title: “An Aging Opera Singer Speaks at Her First AA Meeting,” which begins,
“Once I got sober god quit speaking to me.
I miss her strenuously. She was an alto.
Her speech was aria. I’m a soprano….”
From “Fruit Cocktail in Light Syrup”
“…Another food of my
youth was candy corn…
…harking back to a past
when humans grew, rather than manufactured,
food. But what was fruit cocktail’s secret
meaning? It glistened as though varnished….”
After many worrisome poems about aging and death, Gertstler brings us back to the comfort of the natural order in “Woman Looking at a Drop of Seawater Under the Microscope.”
“Who knew this little bit of spillage
contained multitudes of what we all
boil down to?...
Why, then have I been so afraid
of what I am made of breaking down
into constituent parts, of one day
rejoining this infinitesimal assembly,
of becoming an orgy of particles
too (beautiful and) numerous to count?”
She does give us fair warning that our thoughts will be yanked hither and yon in the opening poem, “{from an introduction to some fragments of the Index of Women}.” The fragments she mentions make it clear there’s no one answer to anything, no way to define “women” because we’re so far more complicated than the sum of our atoms. Here’s a taste.
“…Envision, then, a text riddled with disputed
fragments, its breath smelling of cough drops,
mouthwash, and cigarettes, or instant coffee,
or gin, its hands shoved into oven mitts….”
Soon followed by
“For no reason we can find
the document includes a selection
of cheerful seasonal songs
and several attempts to describe
the sounds made by wind chimes….”
Gertstler stirs a delicious blend of doom and gloom (about aging, death, the ruination of our planet) with quirky, wry humor. How else would we hold onto hope or care whether
we write or read another book?
Here are a few more tastes. Sometimes half the fun is in the title: “An Aging Opera Singer Speaks at Her First AA Meeting,” which begins,
“Once I got sober god quit speaking to me.
I miss her strenuously. She was an alto.
Her speech was aria. I’m a soprano….”
From “Fruit Cocktail in Light Syrup”
“…Another food of my
youth was candy corn…
…harking back to a past
when humans grew, rather than manufactured,
food. But what was fruit cocktail’s secret
meaning? It glistened as though varnished….”
After many worrisome poems about aging and death, Gertstler brings us back to the comfort of the natural order in “Woman Looking at a Drop of Seawater Under the Microscope.”
“Who knew this little bit of spillage
contained multitudes of what we all
boil down to?...
Why, then have I been so afraid
of what I am made of breaking down
into constituent parts, of one day
rejoining this infinitesimal assembly,
of becoming an orgy of particles
too (beautiful and) numerous to count?”
November 15, 2021
4.5. Amy Gerstler GETS it.
March 19, 2022
My favorites:
- "Ode to Birth Control"
- "Anthem"
- "Tooth Fairy Sonnet": subverts expectation of tooth fairies as innocent fantasy for children. It made me think about what tooth fairy is for: why do we tell this story to to a child when the child lost one of their teeth and therefore is physically growing up? And what the heck is "a marble quarry whirlwind"?
- "My Ego"
- "Letters from a Lost Doll": I was apprehensive about this because I loved the story of Kafka writing letters to a girl by posing as her lost doll and I didn't want it to be ruined by some cynical twist (see "Tooth Fairy Sonnet"). But it was actually sweet and uplifting in a different way.
- "The Semmelweis Opera": The genial storytelling that Gerstler achieves in a few pages in this prose poem is something that I wish more authors would take inspirations from. *looking at The Liar's Dictionary*
- "The Feminine Art of Quilting"
- "Black Coat"
- "Woman Looking at a Drop of Seawater Under the Microscope": I love the dreamy phrasing of "the wet silver/ of Poseidon's eyes."
- "Ode to Birth Control"
- "Anthem"
- "Tooth Fairy Sonnet": subverts expectation of tooth fairies as innocent fantasy for children. It made me think about what tooth fairy is for: why do we tell this story to to a child when the child lost one of their teeth and therefore is physically growing up? And what the heck is "a marble quarry whirlwind"?
- "My Ego"
- "Letters from a Lost Doll": I was apprehensive about this because I loved the story of Kafka writing letters to a girl by posing as her lost doll and I didn't want it to be ruined by some cynical twist (see "Tooth Fairy Sonnet"). But it was actually sweet and uplifting in a different way.
- "The Semmelweis Opera": The genial storytelling that Gerstler achieves in a few pages in this prose poem is something that I wish more authors would take inspirations from. *looking at The Liar's Dictionary*
- "The Feminine Art of Quilting"
- "Black Coat"
- "Woman Looking at a Drop of Seawater Under the Microscope": I love the dreamy phrasing of "the wet silver/ of Poseidon's eyes."
January 8, 2022
Although the poems in this book are written by one person they seem to be the voices of multiple women and girls. They're a little wordy, but the words are used intelligently and thoughtfully. You can get an idea of the various perspectives from some of the titles of the poems: "Ode to Birth Control," "Tooth Fairy Sonnet," "An Aging Opera Singer Speaks at her First AA Meeting," "My Late Wife," "Woman With Her Throat Slit," A few of these are prose poems. I found this collection interesting and revealing.
Read
November 21, 2023this was my airport read, and when your ears are being swarmed by mindless ambience and your body is suspended in a void of undistinguished place, what could be better than witnessing puzzles being formed, and connections/conversations between Gerstler and her influences being carried out on the page? I needed a truckload of subjects to ruminate over while non-existing in a clinically-lit building, and Amy Gerstler drove the truck right to my unhomely seat
February 10, 2022
“A maestra of invention” indeed! This collection is full of fresh takes on life’s moments, glittering with finely honed images and witty phrasings. The reply to the bogus phishing email from “Mr. Langtree” is hilarious!
Favorite Poems:
“To a Head of Lettuce”
“Dead Butterfly”
“My Ego”
“Poof”
“Conference with the Dead”
“Furniture”
“Fruit Cocktail in Light Syrup”
“Black Coat”
“‘All You Need Is Love’”
“A Monument of Unwashed Dishes”
“Update”
“Woman with Her Throat Slit”
“Woman Looking at a Drop of Seawater Under the Microscope”
Favorite Poems:
“To a Head of Lettuce”
“Dead Butterfly”
“My Ego”
“Poof”
“Conference with the Dead”
“Furniture”
“Fruit Cocktail in Light Syrup”
“Black Coat”
“‘All You Need Is Love’”
“A Monument of Unwashed Dishes”
“Update”
“Woman with Her Throat Slit”
“Woman Looking at a Drop of Seawater Under the Microscope”
Read
May 19, 2021Alright, but I didn't vibe so much with it. I liked the 'lost document' conceit of the collection, but I would have enjoyed it more if it was taken further. The poems are neat, but only 1-2 at most lodged themselves in my head.
October 23, 2021
Absolutely loved the variety here and the storytelling.
Quotes
"...how shaken by life-thirst and yearning / this world has made me." (80)
"Do you think... that/ either of us will ever regain that sweet taste in our / mouths? Do you regret losing it too?" (77)
Quotes
"...how shaken by life-thirst and yearning / this world has made me." (80)
"Do you think... that/ either of us will ever regain that sweet taste in our / mouths? Do you regret losing it too?" (77)
February 8, 2022
Some good ones including the one about the woman who fell in love with her babies doctor and one other that I can’t remember now even though I just finished the book…if that’s gives you any indication.
April 27, 2021
Well, I certainly had a great time reading this book, Index of Women, by Amy Gerstler, mostly for its impactive imagery, refreshing language, and empathic subject matter.
July 22, 2022
i wanted to like this book but unfortunately it sent me into a reading slump and i would zone out everytime i picked it up
May 25, 2023
"[...] how unchastely / grateful, how shaken by / life-thirst and yearning / this world has made me."
May 30, 2024
The beginning was good. Used highlighter strips to mark a few lines. But it went downhill fast and just got weird.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews