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Kim Addonizio
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Tell Me (American Poets Continuum Book 61) Kindle Edition

by Kim Addonizio (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 92 ratings
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In this new collection by the author of the award-winning The Philosopher's Club, Kim Addonizio takes the grist of the world and transforms it into poems of transcendent beauty. The dual themes of love and loss are pervasive in Addonizio's poems, made poignant by her keen eye and wise observations.
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  1. ISBN-13
    978-1880238912
  2. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  3. Publisher
    BOA Editions Ltd.
  4. Publication date
    December 20, 2013
  5. Part of series
    American Poets Continuum
  6. Language
    English
  7. File size
    332 KB
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It is not surprising that each of Laux's and Addonizio's third collections of poems are being published in close proximity by the same house. In 1997 the pair coauthored The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry (Norton); both have published two previous collections with BOA; both use candid and unsentimental personal history as a prime subject matter; and both have stronger work in earlier collections. Many of Addonizio's (Jimmy & Rita) straight-talk poems in Tell Me, dedicated to Laux, depict honest characters who are in the destructive, but often unrevealing, clutches of hard-drinking, doomed relationships, and all manner of problems that subsequently arise. Some of the poems raise the question of what happens when you risk emotional honesty and it doesn't work: in "The Divorcee and Gin," she writes, "God, I love/ what you do to me at night when we're alone,/ how you wait for me to take you into me/ until I'm so confused with you I can't/ stand up anymore." The situations are often compelling, and the performancelike language lends them an air of melodrama that many be intentional, but they don't really rise above the status of well-lineated memoir. The largely domestic and narrative poems of Laux's Smoke shift between internal and external landscapes in a manner that at moments recalls early Richard Hugo: "Somewhere/ a Dumpster is ratcheted open by the claws/ of a black machine. All down the block/ something inside you opens and shuts." Her strongest work here achieves a solid music by using direct address in poems such as "Books" and "The Shipfitter's Wife." Yet the plainspoken approach, aiming at understatement, often specifies too little, letting emotional nuance go unarticulated. While both poets may work in parallel registers, the effect of each is distinct. Unfortunately, many poems in both books do not quite locate the seemingly powerful places that generate the work. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Told in the cracked, smoky voice of someone who has loved and lost a lot and has come out the stronger for it these poems by the author of The Philosopher's Club and Jimmy & Rita crackle with energy yet do not betray the slightest slackening of craft. Addonizio moves from bars to caf?s to one-night stands and back to bars singing a sophisticated version of the blues. She may wonder "who has the time for anything/ but their own pleasures and sorrows," but her work never succumbs to melancholy.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00GL9STPW
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ BOA Editions Ltd. (December 20, 2013)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 20, 2013
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 332 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 90 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 92 ratings

About the author

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Kim Addonizio

Kim Addonizio

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Kim Addonizio is a fiction writer, poet, and teacher. Her poetry collections include Tell Me, a finalist for the National Book Award, What Is This Thing Called Love, and Lucifer at the Starlite. She lives in Oakland, California.

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
92 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Erick Garcia
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2021
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Loved this, hits me more emotionally than most poetry
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Amazon Customer Marc Tretin
5.0 out of 5 stars Hot Poetry
Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2014
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Thee poems are so passionate and the images are so arresting, that they will increase your capacity to give and receive love.

You will read one of these poems aloud to someone you cherish and they will ask for more.

If you think you do not like poetry, you have not read the works of Km Addonizio, she is at once accessible and deep.
2 people found this helpful
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A. Slaff
4.0 out of 5 stars Raw and real
Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2008
I read this book for an independent study in women's sexuality. This book of poetry has a section titled "Good Girl" in which a number of poems specifically address femininity and female sexuality including What Do Women Want, Good Girl, Physics, and One-Night Stands. Addonizio uses vivid and often stark imagery to depict important female moments, like single motherhood and meaningless sexual encounters. Few other poets deal with issues so central to female identity with as much blunt force as Addonizio does in this book.

Also, on a side note, she is a very kind woman who, when I asked if I could put excerpts from her book onto my independent study blog said that no one should ever have to ask to write about poetry. This is a real book with real emotions about a real woman. It is not always lyrical but it is rich with "woman." I was glad to have read this.
2 people found this helpful
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Parker
5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2019
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Kim Addonizio is easily one of my favorite contemporary poets. Raw and real, “Tell Me” is a powerful book of poetry.
One person found this helpful
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S Smythe
5.0 out of 5 stars Probably my favorite book of poems
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2015
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Probably my favorite book of poems. Ever. Addonizio speaks to my heart, and I have felt exactly as she speaks (but of course, I couldn't articulate those feelings as gracefully and powerfully as she does here).
One person found this helpful
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Kevin J. Rabas
5.0 out of 5 stars a stellar read
Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2019
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One of my favorite books.
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R. H. White
3.0 out of 5 stars Woman walks into a bar
Reviewed in the United States on February 20, 2006
These are what used to be called confessional poems, narrating and meditating on the life of a person who is effectively identical to the author (same job, same family, etc.). They are sometimes quite witty, as when she describes trying to teach a group of writing students who are "desperate to publish, though criminally indifferent to actual poetry."

On the other hand, about half the poems can be summed up by the opening of "One Night Stands": "Those men I f***ed when I was drunk, / I can't even see their faces..." Bar culture is not exactly a fresh topic, but beyond that, it becomes really depressing to read poem after poem in which the narrator marvels that her strategy of getting plastered and sleeping with anything that moves has not yet brought her true love. Most people I know had figured this out long before their daughters were in college (actually, one might suggest that the author would have had more fun spending some time with her daughter).
2 people found this helpful
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John N. Varnell
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Amazon Poetry Purchase
Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2010
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I love all of Kim Addonzios' work and this is another fine example of why.
She writes with a blunt edge and always tells the truth forcing the reader to
take a little closer look at how her words tell their story.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Worth it!
Reviewed in Canada on July 29, 2021
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She is one of my favorite writers, so whatever I've read of hers so far has been worth the read.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars The real deal
Reviewed in Spain on December 16, 2020
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Kim Addonizio is the poet I have been looking for all this time. A fierce female voice!! I loved this
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 7, 2016
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The best collection from this wonderful American poet. A must-have collection of work in any poetry lover's library.
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Carol
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in Canada on March 22, 2016
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Kim Addonizio's poetry is amazing, fresh, unique.
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Paul Christmas
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 5, 2016
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Excellent collection, I am glad to have been awakened from my poetry slumber by this masterpiece.
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