Staff Pick
Poignant and punctuationless, Edward Hirsch's book-length poem, Gabriel, contends with the death of his adopted son at 22. A master task it would be for any mortal to make their way through these pages without tears a'welling. Hirsch chronicles Gabriel's difficult, often tumultuous life with affection, tenderness, and many a fond memory, but as he recounts the horror and dread upon learning of his son's passing, the stanzas approach unbearable sorrow. While perhaps it was necessary for Hirsch to contend with his grief via his poetical gifts, it must have been an altogether different act of courage to share it with the world. Burying a child is certainly among the most horrific experiences imaginable, yet Hirsch ushers the indescribable into words — bearing witness to his own bereavement and struggling to make sense of an unbearable anguish. Recommended By Jeremy G., Powells.com
Poignant and punctuationless, Edward Hirsch's book-length poem, Gabriel, contends with the death of his adopted son at 22. A master task it would be for any mortal to make their way through these pages without tears a'welling. Hirsch chronicles Gabriel's difficult, often tumultuous life with affection, tenderness, and many a fond memory, but as he recounts the horror and dread upon learning of his son's passing, the stanzas approach unbearable sorrow. While perhaps it was necessary for Hirsch to contend with his grief via his poetical gifts, it must have been an altogether different act of courage to share it with the world. Burying a child is certainly among the most horrific experiences imaginable, yet Hirsch ushers the indescribable into words—bearing witness to his own bereavement and struggling to make sense of an unbearable anguish. Recommended By Jeremy G., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Longlisted for the 2014 National Book Award
Never has there been a book of poems quite like Gabriel, in which a short life, a bewildering death, and the unanswerable sorrow of a father come together in such a sustained elegy. This unabashed sequence speaks directly from Hirsch s heart to our own, without sentimentality. From its opening lines The funeral director opened the coffin / And there he was alone / From the waist up Hirsch s account is poignantly direct and open to the strange vicissitudes and tricks of grief. In propulsive three-line stanzas, he tells the story of how a once unstoppable child, who suffered from various developmental disorders, turned into an irreverent young adult, funny, rebellious, impulsive. Hirsch mixes his tale of Gabriel with the stories of other poets through the centuries who have also lost children, and expresses his feelings through theirs. His landmark poem enters the broad stream of human grief and raises in us the strange hope, even consolation, that we find in the writer s act of witnessing and transformation. It will be read and reread.
From the Hardcover edition."