- Hardcover: 608 pages
- Publisher: Harbour; 1 edition (Oct 1 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1550172255
- ISBN-13: 978-1550172256
- Product Dimensions: 24.1 x 16.8 x 4.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 1 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
#97,312 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #43 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Canadian > Asian Canadian
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Amazon
Beyond Remembering spans the best years of Al Purdy's long and prolific career, from 1959's The Crafte So Long to Lerne onwards. It is a bulky and rambling volume that seems to address every subject a Canadian poet could care to address: Canadian history from the Cretaceous onward, the recesses of domestic life, travels to Mexico and Russia, D.H. Lawrence, the sex lives of rabbits, and nearly every corner of Canada. Purdy's voice is immediately recognizable, whether he is spinning tall tales, as in "At the Quinte Hotel":
I am drinkingor plunging deep into the pains of intimacy, as in "Married Man's Song":
I am drinking beer with yellow flowers
in underground sunlight
and you can see that I am a sensitive man
And I notice that the bartender is a sensitive man too
so I tell him about his beer
I tell him the beer he draws
is half fart and half horse piss
and all wonderful yellow flowers
There are rooms for rent in the outer planetsIn his range (emotional, anecdotal, geographical), Purdy is among the most important Canadian poets of his generation. His writing can show the roughness of the autodidact, and it lopes along in its loose forms, but it is substantial talker's verse, with great integrity and garrulous charm. He rambles, but he gets away with it.
and neons blaze in Floral Sask
we live with death but it's life we die with
in the blossoming earth where springs the rose
In house and highway in town and country
what's given is paid for blood gifts are sold.
Readers unfamiliar with Purdy should first turn to the slim selected volume Rooms for Rent in the Outer Planets, which is a superb introduction to his vast oeuvre. Beyond Remembering will delight Purdy devotees, however, and it is a much-needed replacement for the long-obsolete The Collected Poems of Al Purdy. --Jack Illingworth
Book Description
By the time Al Purdy succumbed to lung cancer at his waterfront home in Sidney BC on April 21, 2000, he was universally acknowledged to be one of the greatest writers Canada has produced. In five decades as a published author he had produced over forty books and received innumerable distinctions, including two Governor General's Awards and the Order of Canada. A hands-on writer who delighted in co-producing specialty publications and small press titles in addition to his major collections with leading publishers, Purdy left a massive and diverse body of work, much of it long unavailable to the public.
The Collected Poems, edited by Purdy critic Sam Solecki with the full participation of the author, for the first time brings all of Purdy's poetic writings together in one volume, including all his later books, work previously uncollected from earlier periods as well as several excellent new poems he completed in the months before his death. It is, as he said, everything he wished to be remembered for.
The Collected Poems, edited by Purdy critic Sam Solecki with the full participation of the author, for the first time brings all of Purdy's poetic writings together in one volume, including all his later books, work previously uncollected from earlier periods as well as several excellent new poems he completed in the months before his death. It is, as he said, everything he wished to be remembered for.
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Most helpful customer reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Canada's finest,
By Allan MacInnis (Vancouver) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy (Hardcover)
One of the last things Al Purdy worked on before his death last year (1999? or was it 2000? I forget the exact date) was a definitive edition of his collected poems; he helped select these, and wrote a preface. Coming just a few years after a previous anthology of his work, this edition incorporates much material from Purdy's later years, including his touching and apt lament for his friend Charles Bukowski. All the Purdy poems that I've come to love over the years are here; he writes with humour, warmth, and a delightful curmudgeonism, and with a great awareness of region and history, as they inform his experience of life in Canada. There are many very funny moments, like "When I sat down to play the piano," about Purdy being accosted by dogs with an "inexplicable taste for human excrement" when attempting to take a bowel movement in the snow in the Canadian north; but also much that is profoundly moving and true. Purdy's great gift is to take a mundane experience, rooted in a very concrete particular, and make of it something of universal human significance (for example, "Flat Tire in the Desert," which is about mortality). He was one of Canada's finest writers and this bookk is a worthy testament to that.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review) 5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Canada's finest,
By Allan MacInnis - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Beyond Remembering: The Collected Poems of Al Purdy (Hardcover)
One of the last things Al Purdy worked on before his death last year (1999? or was it 2000? I forget the exact date) was a definitive edition of his collected poems; he helped select these, and wrote a preface. Coming just a few years after a previous anthology of his work, this edition incorporates much material from Purdy's later years, including his touching and apt lament for his friend Charles Bukowski. All the Purdy poems that I've come to love over the years are here; he writes with humour, warmth, and a delightful curmudgeonism, and with a great awareness of region and history, as they inform his experience of life in Canada. There are many very funny moments, like "When I sat down to play the piano," about Purdy being accosted by dogs with an "inexplicable taste for human excrement" when attempting to take a bowel movement in the snow in the Canadian north; but also much that is profoundly moving and true. Purdy's great gift is to take a mundane experience, rooted in a very concrete particular, and make of it something of universal human significance (for example, "Flat Tire in the Desert," which is about mortality). He was one of Canada's finest writers and this bookk is a worthy testament to that.
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