Reviews

Faithful and Virtuous Night by Louise Glück

sol84's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

4.5

kristenmtan's review against another edition

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4.0

4/5
read for contemporary american poetry class
was good but a little heavy on the philosophy for me! i like the other two glücks i’ve read better
i am not that into narrative poetry?? new discovery i guess !

betiarias76's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

shauneysreads's review against another edition

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2.5

A little disappointed as Louise Glück is usually an easy 5 stars for me. I liked a couple, specifically the titular poem. It was a lot of… meh 🤷‍♀️. 

tnanz's review against another edition

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4.0

Not my favorite book of poetry by Gluck. Had a few truly beautiful moments, but nothing that I feel compelled to read over and over again. Maybe I'm just dazzled by her Greek stuff. This was fine though!

emiliebea's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.0

sr1234's review against another edition

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fast-paced

4.0

Silence had entered me. 
It was like the night, and my memories—they were like stars 
in that they were fixed, though of course
if one could see as do the astronomers 
one would see they are unending fires…

benjaminvr's review against another edition

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4.0

“I have been hounded by feeling; it is the gift of expression that has so often failed me. Failed me, tormented me, virtually all my life.”

This book brought back memories of a forgotten past, memories of something that I thought was only mist in my head. It made me question myself about my current situation and mourn what I have lost. It was a stab of reality.

jarichan's review against another edition

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3.0

Nach meinem dritten Gedichtband von Louise Glück denke ich, einen guten Einblick in ihr Schaffen erhalten zu haben.

Diese Gedichte unterscheiden sich ein weiteres Mal von den mir bereits gelesenen. Hier sind die Texte öfter alltagsbezogen, vielleicht sogar biographisch. Auffallend ist, dass die Ich-Person in den Gedichten meistens männlich ist. Bei Romanen begegnet einem dies natürlich oft, aber von Gedichten bin ich mir dies noch gar nicht gewohnt.

Auch hier erzeugt Glück durch einfache Wortwahl am richtigen Ort viel Tiefe. Sie arbeitet mit starken Bildern und verschafft uns so klare Eindrücke von Natur, Gefühlen und Emotionen. Familiengeschichten werden erzählt, Beziehungen eingegangen und gelöst, dazwischen dringt immer wieder das Mystisch-Magische und Verzauberte hervor.

Zwischen den einzelnen Gedichten finden sich auch immer wieder kurze Texte. Diese sind prägnant, tiefsinnig und sehr philosophisch. Hier arbeitet Glück oft mit Sinnbildern, wobei mir vor allem jener Text mit dem schlafenden Mann auf der Treppe in Erinnerung bleiben wird.

Grundsätzlich sagten mir diese Gedichte etwas weniger zu, aber die Texte wiederum sagten mir sehr zu. Glück ist eine sehr vielfältige Autorin, bei der man zu Beginn eines Buches kaum weiss, was einen erwarten wird.

ashleynef's review against another edition

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5.0

There's something about art done well that creates questions in the mind that have no words. I suppose the word for that is wonder, but that feels too small and quaint for the breathless awe that settles over my mind and heart in its presence.

Anyway, this is my first volume of Glück's poetry. I have a bad habit of reading things quickly, so I always benefit from reading things multiple times. This is good practice for her work, because even after subsequent readings, I feel like I sprinted through an art gallery full of masterpieces. I can sense marvels in the margins that I have only the barest hint of. But isn't that a sign of good poetry in and of itself--that sensation of great reservoirs yet to be tapped, of the iceberg lurking beneath its visible cap above water? Glück's poetry is the type you can chew on. And I will be returning to do just that many more times to come.