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missdaisy17's review
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
5.0
winter_b's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
A gentle and beautiful window into some of the years of their lives together.
Content Warnings
Minor: Cancer and Death
izzysreading's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
5.0
trudi's review
emotional
medium-paced
5.0
I can’t even describe how much I loved this book. It is one that I will be coming back to again and again. I already loved Mary Oliver’s poetry, but this book made me understand and connect with her work even more. The way she writes about M. is clearly so full of love that it makes my chest ache. I am just so emotional about this book, I can’t get my thoughts about it in order, so to sum it all up: Phenomenal, emotional, beautiful, life changing book; have tissues nearby.
filaughn's review
5.0
This book is a love letter, mixed with elegy from Mary Oliver to her partner of over 40 years, Molly Malone Cook, after Cook passed away. The photographs and text work really well together and the emotion is so strong and clear.
atticmoth's review
5.0
As personal an art form as poetry is, rarely does it tell the poet’s life story as nakedly as prose. That is why poets who I have spent a long time reading such as Mary Oliver often still remain elusive, mythic figures in my mind. Details about her life can be found here and there in her essay work, but I still think of her as a sagely Baba Yaga. Still, these literary personas we revere for their wisdom were once young.
Our World is an elegy for Mary Oliver’s partner (“It was a forty-year conversation,”) Molly Malone Cook. Cook was a photographer, and a force in legitimizing the medium as an art form, an early proponent of big names like Ansel Adams. This book pairs brief essays from Oliver with Cook’s black-and-white photography work and should be read all in one go. It concludes with selections from Cook’s diary, which show a very different side of Oliver. All in all, this book paints a heartbreaking portrait of two people and of a lifelong relationship.
dembury's review against another edition
5.0
A beautiful combination of Molly Malone Cook's and Mary Oliver's works, both writing and photography, that creates such an intimate and heartfelt picture of their two lives together. "Our World" feel like part tribute and part memoir that all together is just lovely and full of compassion.\
I've been reading Oliver for years now, but this is the first time I've experienced Cook's work. Her photography is quite distinct, and often has this mixture of nostalgia alongside exploration, like she's already remembering and meditating on the moment she is currently experiencing in front of her. It also feels like it's capturing a breath: I know that's literally what photos do in a way, but with her work it's as if you can FEEL the people in the picture about to exhale. Absolutely wonderful stuff.
I've been reading Oliver for years now, but this is the first time I've experienced Cook's work. Her photography is quite distinct, and often has this mixture of nostalgia alongside exploration, like she's already remembering and meditating on the moment she is currently experiencing in front of her. It also feels like it's capturing a breath: I know that's literally what photos do in a way, but with her work it's as if you can FEEL the people in the picture about to exhale. Absolutely wonderful stuff.