- Paperback: 296 pages
- Publisher: Hushion House (Oct 1 1995)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1568860145
- ISBN-13: 978-1568860145
- Product Dimensions: 23.3 x 15.4 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 522 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #526,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
The poems selected here span from Baraka's first collection, Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note (1961), to the long poem Wise, Why's, Y'z, published earlier this year. The best work here has been culled from his second and third books, The Dead Lecturer (1964) and Black Magic (1969). Despite coming out of distinct phases in Baraka's life (the former when he was a book Beat, by the latter he'd become black nationalist), these works combine the personal and political in highly charged ways. When Baraka writes of "the roaring harmonies of need" or of "stumbling over our souls in the dark, for the sake of unnatural advantage," he succeeds as both an activist and a poet. However, as revolutionary politics increasingly intrude, Baraka seems largely to abandon the craft of poetry for the the broader strokes of diatribe and rant ("dont tell me shit about the tradition of slavemasters/ & henry james... "). However disappointing much of this later work may be, it is readily argued that Baraka's influential work prefigured rap and the current vogue of spoken-word performances and poetry slams. This collection provides a useful overview of his work.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
As the editor of this critically important collection explains in his foreword, the title Transbluesency derives from a 1946 Duke Ellington composition. The entire book resonates with jazz rhythms and homages to Thelonius Monk, Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, and John Coltrane. This use of jazz as inspiration and artistic model is just one of many signs that Baraka (formerly LeRoi Jones) came of age during the Beat movement and remains perhaps its truest practitioner. His poems are aggressive challenges to the status-quo, relying on daring images, short chant-like lines, neologisms, slang, blues lyrics, and scat-singing: "BaBa Ree Bopp/Ooo Shoobie/Doobie." Transbluesency is a chronicle of nearly 40 years of poetic output, from "Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note" (1961) to "Wise, Why's, Y's" (1995). In an era when celebrated African American poets like Rita Dove and Yusef Komunyakaa are writing highly literary verse, Baraka raucously celebrates "negritude." Highly recommended.?Daniel L. Guillory, Millikin Univ., Decatur, Ill.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Free verse is not poetry, but . . .,
By
This review is from: Transbluesency: The Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1961-1995) (Paperback)
Amiri Baraka is the most rhythmically fascinating of all free verse writers. One sees a genius at work, playing with words, tossing about images, sounds-- effortlessly. Unlike most other free verse writers, Mr. Baraka actually gets under your skin. He doesn't talk about a red wheelbarrow or plums in a refrigerator. He shocks, like a John Coltrane solo. You can taste his lines. He writes of sex, violence, the ugly stench and the beautiful scent of life and death. Mr. Baraka has always been a politically charged author. But his greatest achievement is his handling of rhythms, of the way words bounce off each other. I'll take him over any other free verse writer of the past one hundred years.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Life of a Revolutionary Poet,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Transbluesency: The Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1961-1995) (Paperback)
This book is not for those sensitive to raw material. But if you're a fan of Mr. Baraka, this book is a 40-year collection, and a definite must for your bookshelf. In the words of Mr. Baraka, "Can you stand such beauty? So violent and transforming." This line from his poem "Return of the Native" encompasses all that is Transbluency. This book is for the true fan of protest poetry. Mr. Baraka uses blues and jazz rhythms as well as the natural essence of words to express himself in amazing ways. I enjoy this book not only because I am a fan, but because it is rare to find a poet who has mastered the art of poetic language and imagery.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
word beat,
By T. Bekken - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Transbluesency: The Selected Poetry of Amiri Baraka/LeRoi Jones (1961-1995) (Paperback)
Baraka's "Best Of..." collection is quite simply a must-read for any person with an interest in 20th century poetry. The words almost leap out against you when you open the book, and the language is mind-bending. Try to read these poems aloud to yourself, and you might just get the word-kick of a lifetime. Oop Bop Sh'Bam...
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