Reviews for Elizabeth Bishop and her art

The average rating for Elizabeth Bishop and her art based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-10-28 00:00:00 Tuan Nguyen A very enjoyable biography of one of my favorite poets. Millier's writing is wonderful and, even though Bishop lived a pretty dull life, consisting of visiting people, getting blind drunk, writing amazing poetry very slowly, feeling guilty, and having asthma attacks, the book itself is never dull or plodding. It's got a great quick pace. This book provides a different perspective on Bishop's poetry than reading the poems alone. She was depressed, lonely and guilty for much of her life. One great feature of this biography is that the poems are interwoven into the narrative. The central mystery of Elizabeth Bishop's life (as opposed to her poetry, which is more complex) is how somebody who is a depressive, a terrible alcoholic, kinda racist and frequently sick could have so many devoted friends. She was friends with and had ongoing letter-writing relationships with intellectuals and writers -- hundreds of them over her lifetime. Robert Lowell, Marianne Moore, John Ashbery, John Berryman, etc. Even though she thought herself to be a piece of shit, she must have been a fun lady to be around. Everyone was always inviting her to stay at their pad. (And that was part of her problem. She never truly had a pad she thought of as her own.)

Review # 2 was written on 2012-03-07 00:00:00 EDWARD GONZALEZ A really terrific biography of my favorite poet. Not only is it tremendously detailed, but the readings of the poems are thorough, astute, incisive and sensitive. And to think that the newer biography, Miracle for Breakfast, is supposed to be so much better. I can hardly wait. As Bishop dictated her wish for her tombstone inscription, one can say almost the same for her life story as it is given to us here: "Awful, but cheerful." This was a very emotional read for me. Bishop is in some fundamental ways unknowable, as is her poetry, and this is as it should be, but to know more about her unknowability through this wonderful biography has been a rare treat.