Averno is a small crater lake in southern Italy, regarded by the ancient Romans as the entrance to the underworld. That place gives its name to Louise Gluck's tenth collection: in a landscape turned irretrievably to winter, it is a gate or passageway that invites traffic between worlds while at the same time resisting their reconciliation. "Averno" is an extended lamentation, its long, restless poems no less spellbinding for being without conventional resoltution or consolation, no less ravishing for being savage, grief-stricken. What "Averno" provides is not a map to a point of arrival or departure, but a diagram of where we are, the harrowing, enduring present. Louise Gluck has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Bollingen Prize, and is the former Poet Laureate of the United States. She teaches at Yale University and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A National Book Award FinalistA "New York Times" Notable Book of the YearWinner of the Ambassador Book Award Averno is a small crater lake in southern Italy, regarded by the ancient Romans as the entrance to the underworld. That place gives its name to Louise Gluck's eleventh collection: in a landscape turned irretrievably to winter, it is the only source of heat and light, a gate or passageway that invites traffic between worlds while at the same time opposing their reconciliation. "Averno" is an extended lamentation, its long, restless poems no less spellbinding for being without plot or hope, no less ravishing for being savage, grief-stricken. What "Averno" provides is not a map to a point of arrival or departure, but a diagram of where we are, the harrowing, enduring presence, in which the ecstatic and the inevitable are irrevocably fused. ""Averno" may be her masterpiece. Certainly it demonstrates that she is writing at the peak of her powers . . . The 18 poems in "Averno, " rich and resonant--with intricately linked imagery, overlapping themes, recurring characters--form a unified collection, but one in which each part never fails to speak for the whole."--Nicholas Christopher, "The New York Times Book Review "
"Lago D'Averno (Avernus in Latin) is a volcanic crater lake, 10 miles west of Naples . . . The formal entrance of to the underworld was in a nearby cave . . . In "The Aeneid," Virgil catalogs some of the monsters (Gorgons, Harpies, the Chimera) and other fearsome figures gathered there: Grief, Disease, and Discord, all of whom, in various guises, makes appearances in Louise Gluck's brilliant new collection, "Averno." Before and after Virgil, a long line of poets, epic and lyric, have chronicled perilous journeys to the underworld, traveling deeply to bring back its true booty--not Hades' gems, but the darkly glittered poems inspired by his queen, Persephone. Gluck has earned a place in that distinguished company of chthonic poets . . . "Averno" may be her masterpiece. Certainly it demonstrates that she is writing at the peak of her powers . . . The 18 poems in "Averno, " rich and resonant--with intricately linked imagery, overlapping themes, recurring characters--form a unified collection, but one in which each part never fails to speak for the whole."--Nicholas Christopher, "The New York Times Book Review""" "Few poets can shoulder the weight of myth the way Gluck does . . . The poems brilliantly display a poet's insight, a mother's warmth, and a mortal's empathy. There is wry humor, too, and, amid much that is dark, there are fragments of hope."--"The New Yorker" "The true subject of "Averno" . . . is the soul's journey. As for her poetry, it continues to surprise and be beautiful."--Charles Simic, "New York"" Review of Books" "Gluck, whose numerous books of poetry include the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Wild Iris," writes with an aching precision in these spare and elegant pieces."--Elizabeth Hoover, "Los Angeles Book Review" "A poet of taut intensities, Gluck] walks a high-wire between the oracular and everyday, the absolute and the ephemeral . . . She interrogates the world and finds it inadequate to the mind; and like the Romantics at their most skeptical and chastened, she treats myths not as consolations but as probes for thought . . . Gluck's death-haunted poems are electrically alive and] often stationed in interzones or on thresholds . . . The fusion of ancient and modern is haunting and exhilarating. 'Make it new, ' Ezra Pound said. She has."--Maureen N. McLane, "The Washington Post Book World" ""Averno" feels made from experience, as though Gluck had gone down to the underworld herself to confirm what we all know to be true."--John Freeman, "The Phoenix""" "In an age of facts, it's easy to lose touch with the art of invention. In Gluck's poetry, you can almost hear the sound of language cascading, trying to find a place in the world. At times, it is as though the myths were reinventing language itself. That it is done with such simplicity, and so delicately, is what makes her work so vital."--Dionisio Martinez, "The Miami Herald
""Gluck amazes by fulfilling a command that must become more ironic every time it gets repeated . . . In 'Prism, ' the speaker catalogues the stock fall-in-love-get-married story of her girlhood, explaining how 'Time was experienced / less as narrative then ritual. / What was repeated has weight.' This describes the movement of "Averno" itself; despite a skepticism about easy repetition, the work circles upon itself; despite a skepticism about easy repetition, the work circles upon itself in a kind of lyrical reinvention of ritual reminiscent of H.D., whose poetry haunts "Averno"'s crisp classicism and its exploration of personal trauma, especially in terms of gender, female sexuality and male power . . . Repetition with a difference defines not only the collection's lyrical process but its overall structure: "Averno" presents a series of alternative tellings and analyses of the Persephone myth situated like pillars throughout. The other poems
Industry Reviews
"Brilliant �poems of� complex, haunting power . . . "Averno" may be Gluck's masterpiece. Certainly it demonstrates that she is writing at the peak of her powers." -Nicholas Christopher, "The New York Times Book Review""" "Few poets can shoulder the weight of myth the way Gluck does . . . The poems brilliantly display a poet's insight, a mother's warmth, and a mortal's empathy. There is wry humor, too, and, amid much that is dark, there are fragments of hope." -"The New Yorker" " Brilliant [poems of] complex, haunting power . . . "Averno" may be Glu ck's masterpiece. Certainly it demonstrates that she is writing at the peak of her powers." - Nicholas Christopher, "The New York Times Book Review""" " Few poets can shoulder the weight of myth the way Glu ck does . . . The poems brilliantly display a poet's insight, a mother's warmth, and a mortal's empathy. There is wry humor, too, and, amid much that is dark, there are fragments of hope." - "The New Yorker" " Brilliant [poems of] complex, haunting power . . . "Averno" may be Glu ck' s masterpiece. Certainly it demonstrates that she is writing at the peak of her powers." - Nicholas Christopher, "The New York Times Book Review""" " Few poets can shoulder the weight of myth the way Glu ck does . . . The poems brilliantly display a poet' s insight, a mother' s warmth, and a mortal' s empathy. There is wry humor, too, and, amid much that is dark, there are fragments of hope." - "The New Yorker" "Brilliant [poems of] complex, haunting power . . . "Averno" may be Gluck's masterpiece. Certainly it demonstrates that she is writing at the peak of her powers." -Nicholas Christopher, "The New York Times Book Review"" "Few poets can shoulder the weight of myth the way Gluck does . . . The poems brilliantly display a poet's insight, a mother's warmth, and a mortal's empathy. There is wry humor, too, and, amid much that is dark, there are fragments of hope." -"The New Yorker"" "Brilliant [poems of] complex, haunting power . . . Averno may be Gluck's masterpiece. Certainly it demonstrates that she is writing at the peak of her powers." --Nicholas Christopher, The New York Times Book Review
"Few poets can shoulder the weight of myth the way Gluck does . . . The poems brilliantly display a poet's insight, a mother's warmth, and a mortal's empathy. There is wry humor, too, and, amid much that is dark, there are fragments of hope." --The New Yorker Brilliant [poems of] complex, haunting power . . . "Averno" may be Gluck's masterpiece. Certainly it demonstrates that she is writing at the peak of her powers. "Nicholas Christopher, The New York Times Book Review"
Few poets can shoulder the weight of myth the way Gluck does . . . The poems brilliantly display a poet's insight, a mother's warmth, and a mortal's empathy. There is wry humor, too, and, amid much that is dark, there are fragments of hope. "The New Yorker"" Praise for Louise Gluck:
"There are a few living poets whose new poems one always feels eager to read. Louise Gluck ranks at the top of the list. Her writing's emotional and rhetorical intensity are beyond dispute. Not once in six books has she wavered from a formal seriousness, an unhurried sense of control and a starkness of expression that, like a scalpel, slices the mist dwelling between hope and pain." --David Biespiel, "The Washington Post"
