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08-17-2017, 05:12 AM
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Prufrock Blog features Michael Juster's review of Lowell bio
From the Prufrock Blog:
*A. M. Juster reviews Kay Redfield Jamison’s “psychological account” of Robert Lowell. According to Juster, she is too quick to blame Lowell’s “erratic and violent behavior” on mental illness and is a poor reader of his work ( http://micahmattix.us9.list-manage1....e= 01f1b13d41) .*
Congratulations, Michael! This is packed with intelligent analysis.
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08-17-2017, 06:06 AM
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Join Date: Mar 2017
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Jamison wrote an interesting book on art and madness - mostly on writing, as I recall. That I guess is her thing. But as they say, diagnosis without setting eyes on the patient is a fraught business.
I think at the end of the day I am rather selfishly more interested in what Lowell put on the page, which I think is sometimes unsurpassed, than in what his life was like, notorious as that is. I guess I'll have to read the review! But I'd be interested in seeing the book as well, and that delays me. Reviews on their own are tricky things, of course...
Cheers,
John
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08-17-2017, 09:36 AM
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Terrific. Bravo, Mike!
J
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08-17-2017, 10:56 AM
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Wow, Mike, that book sounds awful. Kudos not just for so intelligently taking it apart but for making yourself read it from cover to cover.
__________________
Aaron Poochigian
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08-22-2017, 05:19 PM
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. . . and she got a MacArthur? Yikes! What Aaron said.
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08-22-2017, 07:37 PM
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Excellent disquisition! Well critiqued indeed.
Reading this not only made me want to not waste my time on the dubious book under review but gave me the itch to find a reliably good alternative. I have been investigating, and wondering whether, say, the biography by Ian Hamilton or the one by Alan Williamson is any good. If the reviews in scholarly journals are any indication, it seems that many of them excel in one respect and fall short in another... I have an inclination now, though to find something halfway decent.
Last edited by Erik Olson; 08-22-2017 at 08:09 PM.
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08-23-2017, 11:09 AM
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There are two threads on the Eratosphere discussing the same book by Mike Juster. There is this one, in Accomplished Members, which is essentially favorable; and there is this one, in General Talk, which is mostly unfavorable.
What intrigues me is that out of the dozen or so individuals who have responded, the only one who has actually read the book is Mike Juster.
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08-23-2017, 11:42 AM
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. . . and, thanks to Mike's terrific critique, and upon whose judgement I unquestionably rely, I don't plan on reading it, either!
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