Synopses & Reviews
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR FAILURE
"Philip Schultz's language reminds me of such modern masters as Isaac Rosenberg and Hart Crane. It's one thing I've always admired in his poetry; that and a heartbreaking tenderness that goes beyond mere pity and that is so present in Failure. It's as if he bears our pain." -Gerald Stern, winner of the National Book Award
"Philip Schultz's poems have long since earned their own place in American poetry. His stylistic trademarks are his great emotional directness and his intelligent haranguing--of God, the reader, and himself. He is one of the least affected of American poets, and one of the fiercest." -Tony Hoagland
"Call it a poetry of the multiple truths of the all-too-human, the American language profoundly shaped into inclusively, powerfully felt passion. Philip Schultz's Failure is a book of poems of the highest achievement by one of American poetry's longtime masters of the art."--Lawrence Joseph
"Plantive and jubilant, the melody dissolves everything between itself and the firmament, underscoring Schultz's remarkable capacity for empathy with his fellow creatures. Here as elsewhere, his resolve to exult, even in the face of desolation and adversity, make Failure a....splendid book." --Floyd Collins, Gettysburg Review
Review
PRAISE FOR FAILURE "Philip Schultzs language reminds me of such modern masters as Isaac Rosenberg and Hart Crane. Its one thing Ive always admired in his poetry; that and a heartbreaking tenderness that goes beyond mere pity and that is so present in
Failure. Its as if he bears our pain."Gerald Stern, winner of the National Book Award
"Philip Schultzs poems have long since earned their own place in American poetry. His stylistic trademarks are his great emotional directness and his intelligent haranguingof god, the reader, and himself. He is one of the least affected of American poets, and one of the fiercest."Tony Hoagland
Synopsis
This superb Pulitzer Prizewinning collection gives voice to failure with a wry, deft touch from one of this countrys most engaging and uncompromising poets. In
Failure, Philip Schultz evokes the pleasures of family,marriage, beaches, and dogs; New York City in the 1970s; revolutions both interior and exterior; and the terrors of 9/11 with a compassion that demonstrates he is a master of the bittersweet and fierce, the wondrous and direct, and the brilliantly provocative. Filled with poems of "heartbreaking tenderness that [go] beyond mere pity" (Gerald Stern),
Failure is a collection to savor from this major American poet.
Synopsis
"Philip Schultz is a hell of a poet, one of the very best of his generation, full of slashing language, good rhythms, surprises, and the power to leave you meditating in the cave of his poems."
--Norman Mailer
A driven immigrant father, an old poet, Isaac Babel in the authors dreamsPhilip Schultz gives voice to failures in poems that are direct and wry. He evokes other lives, toofamily, beaches, dogs, the pleasures of marriage, New York City in the 1970s ("when nobody got up before noon, wore a suit / or joined anything")and a mind struggling with revolutions both interior and exterior. Failure is a superb new collection from one of Americas great poets.
About the Author
PHILIP SCHULTZ won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for his most recent book of poems, Failure. His poetry and fiction have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, the Nation, the New Republic, and the Paris Review, among other magazines. In addition, he is the founder and director of the Writers Studio in New York.
Table of Contents
Contents
Its Sunday Morning in Early November 1
Talking to Ourselves 2
Specimen 3
The Summer People 5
The Magic Kingdom 7
Louse Point 9
The Idea of California 11
Kodak Park Athletic Association, 1954 14
Grief 15
The Absent 16
My Dog 17
The Garden 18
Exquisite with Agony 19
Bronze Crowd:
After Magdalena Abakanowicz 21
Why 23
My Wife 25
Husband 27
Uncle Sigmund 28
The Amount of Us 30
What I Like and Dont Like 31
Blunt 32
Shellac 34The Adventures of 78 Charles Street 36
Isaac Babel Visits My Dreams 39
Dance Performance 41
The Traffic 43
The Truth 45
The One Truth 46
Failure 48
The Wandering Wingless 50
Acknowledgments 105