The World's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy, 033037222X, Lowest Book Price Finder

Customer Reviews:

Poetry By Numbers

Carol Ann Duffy is one of the foremost poets in British Poetry in the twenty-first century. And therein lies the first of many problems I have with her.

'Academic' concerns, such as mythology and history are all over this book, yet being an academic is not a prerequisite of being a poet.

Her poetry here (and in everything else she's done) is trite, cliched, and gender-specific, whilst it also tries too hard to be funny. Being able to look up a few reference books to find information about various women throughout history does not a poet maketh.

Besides which, the poetry itself is stilted, obscure, awkward, lazy, and badly written. Carol Ann Duffy treads the same path as just about every single other poet who is published in Britain today; they give the publishers exactly what the PUBLISHERS want, rather than actually writing poetry that more than a few individuals can relate to. But who are these arrogant individuals and what makes them qualified to judge what constitutes 'good' poetry? I suspect that class plays a big part... The poetry business is full of nauseating back-slapping and sycophancy, despite the fact that the number of people actually buying poetry is at an all-time low. Wonder why?

Fantastic

I truly adore this owmna and the way she wites.
She cuts to the quick with the emtions of some of her characters, especially with resentment, which features in a lot of her poems in this book.
Take a close look at Delilah and Mrs Aesop, both absolutely extarordinary poems.

Brilliantly creative and entertaining

I loved this collection of poems, written from the perspective of real or imagined wives or other females connected to famous males from history, myth or fairy tale. There's a wonderful variety of tone, from Mrs Herod's raddled old rouÃ©e, waking up with John the Baptist's head in her morning-after-the-night-before bed, to Penelope, for whom Odysseus' return is a tedious interruption to the world-making creativity of her weaving. The Kray Sisters, Pope Joan, Mrs Quasimodo - all are beautifully brought to life by Duffy's deft and imaginative strokes. By turns wistful, menacing, contemptuous or just weary of their men, Duffy's women give us a multifaceted glimpse into a world where women's ways of knowing and being displace men from the spotlight to the shadows. Brilliant.

My Favourite

I absolutely love this collection!!!! It consists mainly of the story behind male mythological figures in which Duffy inverts and presents herself as their wife or lover. Or simply female figures with an interesting tale. The brutal language and matter of fact tone make it perfect for female readers who are sick of men!!! A definite must!!!

History and legend... rom the untold perspective

This is my absolute favourite book of poetry and I liked it so much I had to go out and buy it for all my female friends. The way Duffy twists the tales to bring out the women's point of view is classy, and they are almost all very funny. She brings a number of the legends and their wives into more contemporary settings, which adds an underlying and subtle humour to everything else she says.

My personal fave is Mrs Aesop. I won't tell you what she ends up doing to Mr A, but only say that everyone who had to listen to his sanctimonious tales with annoying morals will laugh last, and loudest.

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