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Title: Come Back to Poetry, Ms Carson, Please!
Review: My friend told me recently that after reading Men in the Off Hours she couldn't even stand having the book in her house. She gave it to me and I read it immediately because I couldn't immagine what would cause her, or anyone, to react so strongly and negatively to a book. I see now, I have to admit, where that distate comes from. The book is weak. It's sense of the line is nearly nonexistent, and the story seems to have been recycled from two previous books (there are references made to her own earlier work in Plainwater and Men in the Off Hours, which I find tacky and a little self-obsessed.) On the bright side, I still have faith in Anne Carson's work. She's written some great poems in the past, so I know there's talent there that can reemerge.
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