Reviews for On The Record

The average rating for On The Record based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-01-16 00:00:00 Paul Camhi John Simon's taste is highly idiosyncratic, and his judgements are sweeping and often scathing. If you can handle all this, the book is excellent. I share most of Simon's likes and a number of his dislikes. He tends to prefer formalism to free verse, and he has no time for imprecision - hence his dislike of Whitman (which I do not share). But when Simon is dealing with a poet he likes he is illuminating, and his own prose is excellent, if too much directed to the cutting phrase.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-12-31 00:00:00 Benjamin Reynolds Well, I personally found Mr. Simon to be a horrible windbag. His many anecdotes about his Ivy League experience were all presented in a self-deprecating manner, but hardly came across as humble and were really just irritating. At any rate, there are a few essays with interesting insight into some of my favorite poets. A good one to skim for research purposes.