Reviews

The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy

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lucysnowy's review against another edition

5.0

lost myself completely
in a wild embroidery of love, lust, loss, lessons learnt

this was wonderful. carol ann duffy's poetry is just amazing. every time i read a collection from her i fall in love a little bit more.

the stand out poems for me were anne hathaway, medusa, mrs lazarus, pygmalion's bride, penelope and dementer. you can probably tell im loving myth retellings at the moment.

it was interesting to research some of the names that i hadn't heard before - rip van winkle, faust - then hear duffy's perspective their lives. i will certainly be picking up more of her work and i look forward to discussing this in my seminar in a few weeks!

myhandmadehell's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

I really loved this. I’m not a big poetry person and don’t read a ton so no expectations should be had as to my ability to review this book with any level of skill or knowledge. I just know that Carol Ann Duffy’s poetry is scathing, incisive, wrathful, hilarious, and smart.

It’s also often terribly problematic. Yeah I’m gonna talk about Mrs. Tiresias. I won’t go into a ton of critical detail because other reviewers have done it well. It’s some terf bullshit, no doubt. My only defense of it is that in the poem, Tiresias is described as being extremely hypocritical - demanding menstrual leave after experiencing a period for the first time (assuming Tiresias has never cared about menstrual health and support before), allowing men to fund a lavish lifestyle even though Tiresias has expressed no interest in men sexually or romantically (and after snapping at the wife to avoid showing affection and giving the impression of a queer relationship), and leveraging newfound womanhood for personal gain, as expressed by Tiresias being on TV. I think the genuine point of the poem was that Tiresias was being a dick about it, BUT there is no denying the transphobic radical feminism pen that Duffy was clearly holding when she wrote it - especially when the wife’s “clearly superior” relationship at the end is with a ciswoman. I’m not trying to say the poem (and the book at large, and likely Duffy herself) isn’t terfy. Just saying there are other context clues.

This is a good book for a woman who’s post-breakup, perhaps, and wants to really sink into and feel her rage for a minute. The book is loaded with poems about how much men suck. This has also been a criticism (fairly) leveled at The World’s Wife. But like. Idk man, I was a teenager in the 90s when these poems were written. I remember that being part of our cultural dialogue. The extreme anti-male language to call attention to the previously unchecked bad behavior of men. I’m not saying it was the RIGHT move, but it was certainly the move at the time, one that resonated with most of the women I knew.

But like. Duffy definitely brings up a good point. Did ANYBODY wonder how Midas’s wife might have felt about his “gift”? Has anyone ever wondered how Pontius Pilate’s wife felt about his decision to execute Jesus? Is Delilah ALWAYS meant to be the Bible’s most abhorrent villainess?

Anyway. Duffy is a good poet. They’re fun to read, fun to read aloud especially because of her excellent use of assonance and contemporary language, and often shockingly funny. Put on your grown-up critical thought hat when you read it and you’ll be fine.

bookasaurusbex's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny reflective fast-paced

5.0

konvineo's review against another edition

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5.0

I've been in a bit of a reading slump for a while now, and really needed something short to read to get back into things. The World's Wife was perfect for this!

I can't say I know a lot about poetry, but I do attempt to read it from time to time, just to switch things up a bit and challenge myself. Despite that, I think that Duffy's poetry is funny and well though out. And this collection puts an interesting spin on well-known stories, legends and myths, so as to work with more modern themes.
Overall great experience, and I think I might have to read some more of Duffy's work.

theicarustoyourcertainty's review against another edition

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1.0

As a woman, I'm tired of reading about how awful and terrible all men are.
The only reason I read this book was because I'd read "Anne Hathaway" beforehand and really loved it, because it wrote a relationship that has often been theorized as loveless as a love-filled marriage. It allowed Anne Hathaway to exist as a woman being loved, which I appreciated.
Some of the beginning poems, like "Mrs. Darwin" (which made me genuinely chortle) and the little red riding hood one I found genuinely craftful and great, the rest fell flat in that they all run along the same line of "I hate my husband, he is Dumb and Awful" and generally just seems like RadFem rhetoric, presented as if it's something to admire.
If you want to celebrate these women, fine, but you can do so without tearing their husbands down, and presenting their marriage as something terrible.
What really sealed the deal on this being complete and utter trash, though, was "Mrs. Tiresias". Never, in my life, have I seen such smug Transphobia presented as "feminism".
TDLR: The narrator's husband is transformed into a woman, and the wife has to deal with that. Strangely, the husband-turned-woman just isn't able to act like a "proper woman" for some reason and her life ends much worse than the narrator's (who, of course, is a proper woman).
The entire poem is just dripping with TERF rhetoric and it's genuinely disgusting to see it be praised as a great piece - not only for the transphobia, but also the boring, unimaginative misandry that is obvious in every page...