Distinctive poetry and paintings reveal the essential warmth behind a misanthropic snarl.
Paintings and poems take a darkly satirical look at life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness from the perspective of middle age.
In an introductory note, Loeb traces the origins of his book to the biographical equivalent of a sucker-punch to the guts–"My baby left me. No one ever really left me before. I didn’t know quite how to act." The ensuing burst of poetic and artistic creativity, culminating in an exhibition of paintings in Seattle in 2004, can be interpreted as the author's attempt to hit back–not at the woman who left him (he implies they worked things out), but at the manifold confusions of modern life in general. Despite what he describes as his decades-long hiatuses from serious painting and poetry, Loeb's work is charged with an energy and sinister wit likely to win him an appreciative audience among those not easily offended. His poetry, spilling down the page in lightly punctuated free verse, is characterized by a knack for one-liners, humorous non sequiturs (sometimes leading to great punch lines, as in the poem "The Expectation Monkey") and snappy dialogue. Some of Loeb's most nuanced humor appears in his use of indirect quotation, where the larger narrative context implies the raconteur's eye-rolling. This multilayered effect in turn depends upon the most impressive achievement of the author's poetry–its creation of a distinctive authorial persona who doubles as his protagonist. Brash, crude, sarcastic, the bedder of numerous women, Loeb's hero also reveals an underlying humanity centered on love for his family, friends and sometimes ex-lovers, as well on his outrage at injustice. Although semi-frequent typographical errors sometimes lead to confusion, this is unlikely to detract from readers’ enjoyment of the text. Meanwhile, Loeb's brightly colored paintings–which range from garish surrealist whimsy, to fauvist nudes and landscapes, to abstractions in various styles–effectively complement the energy of his poetry.
Distinctive poetry and paintings reveal the essential warmth behind a misanthropic snarl.Pub Date: Sept. 23, 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4490-1925-9
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
A zesty, energetic history, not only of a building, but of more than a century of American culture.
A revealing biography of the fabled Manhattan hotel, in which generations of artists and writers found a haven.
Turn-of-the century New York did not lack either hotels or apartment buildings, writes Tippins (February House: The Story of W. H. Auden, Carson McCullers, Jane and Paul Bowles, Benjamin Britten, and Gypsy Rose Lee, Under One Roof In Wartime America, 2005). But the Chelsea Hotel, from its very inception, was different. Architect Philip Hubert intended the elegantly designed Chelsea Association Building to reflect the utopian ideals of Charles Fourier, offering every amenity conducive to cooperative living: public spaces and gardens, a dining room, artists’ studios, and 80 apartments suitable for an economically diverse population of single workers, young couples, small families and wealthy residents who otherwise might choose to live in a private brownstone. Hubert especially wanted to attract creative types and made sure the building’s walls were extra thick so that each apartment was quiet enough for concentration. William Dean Howells, Edgar Lee Masters and artist John Sloan were early residents. Their friends (Mark Twain, for one) greeted one another in eight-foot-wide hallways intended for conversations. In its early years, the Chelsea quickly became legendary. By the 1930s, though, financial straits resulted in a “down-at-heel, bohemian atmosphere.” Later, with hard-drinking residents like Dylan Thomas and Brendan Behan, the ambience could be raucous. Arthur Miller scorned his free-wheeling, drug-taking, boozy neighbors, admitting, though, that the “great advantage” to living there “was that no one gave a damn what anyone else chose to do sexually.” No one passed judgment on creativity, either. But the art was not what made the Chelsea famous; its residents did. Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Andy Warhol, Janis Joplin, Leonard Cohen, Robert Mapplethorpe, Phil Ochs and Sid Vicious are only a few of the figures populating this entertaining book.
A zesty, energetic history, not only of a building, but of more than a century of American culture.Pub Date: Dec. 3, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-618-72634-9
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 18, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
BOOK REVIEW
A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise.
Photographer and author Stanton returns with a companion volume to Humans of New York (2013), this one with similarly affecting photographs of New Yorkers but also with some tales from his subjects’ mouths.
Readers of the first volume—and followers of the related site on Facebook and elsewhere—will feel immediately at home. The author has continued to photograph the human zoo: folks out in the streets and in the parks, in moods ranging from parade-happy to deep despair. He includes one running feature—“Today in Microfashion,” which shows images of little children dressed up in various arresting ways. He also provides some juxtapositions, images and/or stories that are related somehow. These range from surprising to forced to barely tolerable. One shows a man with a cat on his head and a woman with a large flowered headpiece, another a construction worker proud of his body and, on the facing page, a man in a wheelchair. The emotions course along the entire continuum of human passion: love, broken love, elation, depression, playfulness, argumentativeness, madness, arrogance, humility, pride, frustration, and confusion. We see varieties of the human costume, as well, from formalwear to homeless-wear. A few celebrities appear, President Barack Obama among them. The “stories” range from single-sentence comments and quips and complaints to more lengthy tales (none longer than a couple of pages). People talk about abusive parents, exes, struggles to succeed, addiction and recovery, dramatic failures, and lifelong happiness. Some deliver minirants (a neuroscientist is especially curmudgeonly), and the children often provide the most (often unintended) humor. One little boy with a fishing pole talks about a monster fish. Toward the end, the images seem to lead us toward hope. But then…a final photograph turns the light out once again.
A wondrous mix of races, ages, genders, and social classes, and on virtually every page is a surprise.Pub Date: Oct. 13, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-250-05890-4
Page Count: 432
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2015
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