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Read the STOP SMILING review of Night Wraps the Sky (along with Francis Picabia's I Am A Beautiful Monster):Every generation for which poetry isn’t a matter of mere diligence and hard work eventually comes around to Vladimir Mayakovsky. Brash, violent, mercurial — the greatest exponent, avant la lettre, of slam poetry (if poetry could ever be said to “slam,” Mayakovsky’s could), Mayakovsky herded his audience before many a public performance with a hush (“Quiet, my kittens...”) and then, while r...
An imperfect book about an imperfect poet. Mayakavosky was many things-- poet, film star, poster maker, propagandist, Soviet revolutionary supporter and, later, victim-- and this book does its best to touch on all these aspects. And it does this while including writings of Mayakovsky, some of them in fresh translations. The combination of Mayakovsky's work, along with photos and snippets of essays from others about the poet, has met with criticism. It's more a book about the poet than a book of
This was a Goodreads recommendation and I'm so glad Goodreads recommended it, because I don't think I would have found it otherwise, and it was ... just. Exactly what I needed. I struggle to find the appropriate words. But learning about his life, reading his poetry (I give props to the translators because I understand that Russian poetry is difficult to translate, just as any poetry is difficult to translate ~ but I felt like I could trust the translators, which is a big deal for me.) - - It ma...
This is apparently an attempt to make readers "Mayakovsky-conscious," somewhat the same way the recent collection of Daniil Kharms' work, TODAY I WROTE NOTHING, introduced Kharms to Anglophone readers (this one, anyway). However, Mayakovsky is much better known than Kharms and plenty of different English translations of his work are available. This book plays up Mayakovsky's flamboyant personality and seems like an attempt to get the kids into him. On the other hand, what's wrong with that? My m...
I really wanted MORE POEMS. The poems that are here are really good, especially Matvei's translation of "A cloud in pants" and basically that's all I cared about but then had to schmuck my way through all this stuff by Francine du Plessix Gray about how her mother and Mayakovsky totally got it sexytime, and other not-poem writing "about" etc. Shrug. It triggered my "less talk more rock" instinct in kind of a big way. But on the whole, nice book, really well made and fun to read until people star...
A delightful collage of a book, that combines selections of Mayakovsky's poetry (in mostly strong translations) to serve as an introduction to his work, with collected snippets of historical and autobiographical detail to serve as an overview of his life. This is not the definitive book on Mayakovsky, but it could well be the first book by or about him you'll ever read, and it certainly won't be the last, because if Night Wraps the Sky does nothing else, it leaves you hungry for more.
The poems in this book are quite amazing. The best of them, on first reading, made my eyes roll across the pages like nothing I've ever experienced in poetry. A divisive figure, to be sure, since he was quite committed to the Soviet cause. But, he embraced it more as a political extension of futurism than anything, in my opinion. And even though his poetry can allude to the revolution, he always seems to be looking ever outward into the stars.
An amazing collection of snippets from essays and memoirs, poems, and photographs. A testimony about a man, a multi-media mind, a Deleuzoguattarian machine who lived to see what damage his ideal brought to life by others can do. (And he killed himself.) Amazing creativity that in its many manifestations, in many cases could not be hobbled by ideology. An account of life in the circle of brilliant people that probably included a menage or two. Not your Party functionary's Mayakovsky.
Haphazard collection of writings by and about the poet. Felt slipshod, but at least it included some memoirs.
Is it even worthwhile reading poetry in translation? Isn't it rather like phone sex: kind of vicarious and mediated and unfulfilling? One PRESUMES, of course, never having read poetry in translation before...Yeah, anyway. Mayakovsky. Hard to say what he might sound like in Russian. I'm guessing quite dazzling and muscular at times. At others, like bad Slavic Beat poetry. The Soviet Bukowski? Just maybe. He did admire Whitman, after all, and that's usually a dangerous inheritance, whatever you mi...
The achievement of this collection--and one of its stated aims--is to update Mayakovsky for a contemporary audience, and thereby to restore the direct and popular appeal of the writing. However, the major downside of the book is its fragmentary organization. Very few of Mayakovsky's writings are presented in their entirety. The critical excerpts are chopped up, too, so they read more like blurbs. This problem is compounded by the decision to soft-pedal the social and political context of Mayakov...
I love Mayakovsky but agree with other reviewers that the composition of this book is disjointed.
I love Mayakovsky, but not necessarily this book. The arrangement felt very confused and fragmented and did not necessarily contextualize Mayakovaksy's work in any useful or serious way. The second half of the book felt particularly strained with its use of clipped essays that were never long enough to shed light (often only one paragraph). I'll have to keep searching and hoping for a comprehensive compilation of Mayakovsky's writings.
I knew it would be a challenge, but I just couldn't do it.
Tries to sell Mayakovsky like they sell Kerouac. What an insult. Does it with sub-par translations too. The selection is good. The biographical stuff is fair. The rest is bad. Dig out an old volume by Rottenberg or Marshall instead; appreciate the real political, historical, artistic Mayakovsky - not this caricature.
Fascinating glimpse into a very influential life. He did such interesting things with language, it made me want to read some in the original Russian.
much Great stuff in here!
Three difficulties with this book, if you find them so.First, it deals with a historical figure in a historical period. Certain things must be known about the early Soviet period in order to slot Mayakovsky into it and to see his importance for it. Almereyda, who edits the volume, assumes we know enough or need know the depth of that unstable time only from riding its surface.Second, Mayakovsky's fame is based on his poetry, an acclaimed public form of it. Hanging in the air (always), is the que...