Reviews

The Descent of Alette by Alice Notley

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dukegregory's review against another edition

5.0

Indescribably brilliant. Notley's work is a prime example of a poetics of experience. There's much to intellectualize and consider and break down considering gender, history, subjectivity, alterity, war trauma, American identity in a post-Vietnam War culture, indigineity, humanity's relationship to nature, yet the images burst and blast page by page into a phantasmagoric, unpindownable vision of love, destitution, and marginality via a subterrannean world of paternal owls, dissolved selves, side quests, ghosts(?), vaginal caverns(?), etc. I also chose to listen to Notley read most of the third and fourth sections of the poem, and she becomes viscerally emotional while reading certain sections, which, to say the least, heightens the drama (and comedy) of the text. Much love.

savaging's review against another edition

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5.0

Alice Notley: how did you know what was happening down in my subconscious/meditation/dream space? How did you dare write a book as unhinged and deep-down as this?

This is a book of poetry about killing the Tyrant. If you are a revolutionary, read this before Marx or Mao, because I think it takes the possibility of emancipation more seriously than they did. Also: it has beautiful snakes.

rlselden's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious reflective medium-paced

4.5

hauntedwell's review against another edition

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5.0

notley wants you to take your time with this. do the work justice, go slowly, read and re-read

herblueglasses's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

casparb's review against another edition

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RIGHT this is WEIRD and delightful and something like a contemporary feminist epic , Alice Notley is super cool & is famous for being so she keeps going. maybe this could have been slightly fewer pages but who's complaining

anyway one of my favourite features of this is I think Alice , very like Sharon Olds, is using/has discovered a poetic technique that actually Works and MAKES SENSE Psychologically I think it seeps in convincingly it's "practical and delicious"