PENELOPE IBD

Sinopse

What People Are Saying'Homer and Beckett remind us the major stories of life all involve waiting. Indeed, OdysseusâÇÖs long journey home is in itself a form of waiting. And, of course, there is Penelope at her loom, as intelligent and cunning as her husband. We say âÇÖFaithful Penelope,âÇÖ as if one word sums up a complex woman. But there is so much more to know, and Julie WhitakerâÇÖs remarkable poems-soliloquies actually, all prefacedáby a line or lines from The Odyssey-allow readers to see Penelope, wife, mother, and storyteller,áas âÇÖGrief folds her in familiar pain,âÇÖámore clearly, more modern than ever: âÇÖStark words: Save my son!/Her cry of pain resounds.âÇÖ As do these poems.'-Louis Phillips, poet and playwright.'HomerâÇÖs Penelope is finally finished waiting, thanks to Julie WhitakerâÇÖs poignant imagination and deft poetics. Whitaker offers a Penelope for whom waiting is as vibrant, various, active, and textured as any heroâÇÖs journey. PenelopeâÇÖs world is not just the home but the vast and complex world of a mind suffering and sustaining itself, a wife and mother whose interiority is conjured and renovated with each of WhitakerâÇÖs astonishing poems. Alternating between first and third person, the poems unravel and fill out the inner life of every wily woman who has known that grief does not always quell hope, and the hottest passions often require patience. âÇÖMy emptiness is like my loom,âÇÖ declares WhitakerâÇÖs Penelope. Rage unspools into glee, nostalgia tangles with fantasy. It takes a finely tuned lyric voice to finish and make new such epic weaving-Whitaker leaves us a loom of language richly resounding with empathy and music. âÇÖThe airâÇÖs alive. My head is light,âÇÖ this debut is not to be missed.'-Elizabeth Metzger, author of Lying In'Julie WhitakerâÇÖs PENELOPE is consistently fascinating, often touching and remarkably faithful to the style of the translations that supplement her story. The feelings about her son, her contempt for her suitors, her longing for Odysseus and her ambivalence about him are all vivid. This is a real accomplishment.'-Warren Wechsler, writer and musician'Julie WhitakerâÇÖs Penelope captures the metre and mood of PenelopeâÇÖs long sadness and, finally to the oaken bed, at last. Quite a tour de force!'-BC Vermeersch, arts and music educatorJulie M. Whitaker taught international literature at the Nightingale Bamford School in New York City. is the coeditor of Late Poems 1968-1993: Attitudinizings Verse-wise, While Fending for OneâÇÖs Selph, and in a Style Somewhat Artificially Colloquial by Kenneth Burke.á