Pity the Beautiful
by Dana Gioia
- Percentage of approved critics who have given this book a positive review.
Critic Rating
100%
Critic Reviews: 5
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- User rating from iDreamBooks & iTunes
Reader Rating
100%
Reader Ratings: 7
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Synopsis
The long-awaited fourth collection by one of America's foremost poetsO Lord of indirection and ellipses,ignore our prayers. Deliver us from distraction.Slow our heartbeat to a cricket's call. --from “Prophecy” Pity the Beautiful is Dana Gioia's first new poetry book in over a decade. Its emotional revelations and careful construction are hard won, inventive, and resilient. These new poems show Gioia's craftsmanship at its finest, its most mature, as they make music, crack wise, remember the dead, and in a long, central poem even tell ghost stories.
About Dana Gioia
- All Critics: 5
- Positive: 5
- Negative: 0
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Philly.com | 8 Jul 2012
Gioia is a man haunted by many pasts, but his dreams, however sorrowful, come to us with a precision of expression that would be welcome in any age.
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Englewood Review of Books | 15 Jun 2012
Pity the Beautiful retains all that is wonderful about Gioia’s poetry—deep engagement with common life struggles, surprising use of perspective, the use of poetry as both thought piece and narrative.
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Huffington Post | 23 Jun 2012
...these are tough hard-won poems and they offer little comfort -- they are in the tradition of Eliot's conservatism, in the tradition of stoic restraint.
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NewPages Book Reviews | 1 Apr 2012
...a refreshing read in an age of poetry so experimental that it occasionally feels out of reach.
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Huffington Post | 22 May 2012
But the ones that deliver on deep delight do so hugely... Pity the Beautiful is a shining example.
Full ReviewPity the Beautiful