Reviews for Charles Olson in Connecticut

The average rating for Charles Olson in Connecticut based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-03-06 00:00:00 Joseph Wolf i highly recommend this memoir. it might even appeal to those with little interest in charles olson's work as a poet and thinker, it's that engaging. i was prompted to seek it out because it appeared amongst suggestions requested by a teacher of a course on classic memoirs. i had previously skipped over the book imagining it to be a dry report on olson's teaching in his last years, maybe even partly bibliographical. it is far from that. nor would i call it "biography." it is an account of the relationship between a great poet in the last year or so of his life and a young graduate student still working toward a phd. they met at buffalo, but both had moved on, and olson had become a widower. boer invited him to visit in connecticut; he never left (eventually boer convinced his colleagues at uconn to give him a course to teach). much of that time he lived with boer and therein lies the drama; for by then living with him was essentially impossible, and boer was forced to drive him from the house (he found a congenial hotel his last months.) the author is quite frank about negative aspects of the poet's character and actions, which verged on the abusive, but his overall affection and respect is evident; it all seemed to me remarkably true. this is accomplished by the author sticking primarily to what he experienced and observed. toward the end of the text he offers some consideration of the import and value of olson's teaching and thinking, to balance the otherwise anecdotal thrust of the memoir, but this content also seems uniquely valuable, despite its brevity. boer obviously was a deeply talented man. in addition to his professorial and scholarly work in literature, he is an important translator from classical languages (the homeric hymns) and for a couple of decades was editor of the jungian magazine spring.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-05-21 00:00:00 Wally Tulk Superb, detailed, slightly unsettling. This biography prompted me to write the following poem included in my book Moonshot; olson was olson was tired he had talked at max. speed at max. vol. all night on whiskey & speed w/ camel in mouth pencil in hand to the faded Gloucester map the lined paper the dark window that automatic rental car you drive down the black mountain of your all-night rambling highs at 60mph to slow to a peyote crawl daytime low you sure that the destination’s worth the ride? asked creeley light snow falls on his pressed italian suit the men look down at maximus allen fumbles his respects accidentally triggers the coffin-release olson falls head down to his last interminable reading