The Pretext

by Rae Armantrout

A new collection from Armantrout continues to reveal the wit and intelligence of the increasingly popular author.

Genres: Poetry

80 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2000

About the author

Rae Armantrout is an American poet generally associated with the Language poets. Armantrout was born in Vallejo, California but grew up in San Diego. She has published ten books of poetry and has also been featured in a number of major anthologies. Armantrout currently teaches at the University of California, San Diego, where she is Professor of Poetry and Poetics.

On March 11, 2010, Armantrout was awarded the 2009 National Book Critics Circle Award for her book of poetry Versed published by the Wesleyan University Press, which had also been nominated for the National Book Award. The book later earned the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. Armantrout’s most recent collection, Money Shot, was published in February 2011. She is the recipient of numerous other awards for her poetry, including most recently an award in poetry from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in 2007 and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2008.

Reviews

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've given her two chances now and I'm thinking she's over-hyped.
As a previous reviewer mentioned, it's a quick read.

People buy photos
of the famous
murder scene because
murder is context.
- "There"

In my country
facts are dead children.
- "Statement"

[Rui Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read, unless you're a Three-toed Sloth who's spending much of his/her life digesting leaves in the rain forests of Central and South American literature. Perhaps my metabolism runs too swiftly to really enjoy the odd melange of phrases that make up each poem. This mixture of incongruous elements makes for light reading, unless you read deeply into each poem and dig for the hidden meanings behind her quixotic, i.e. unpredictable, statements. It is fun hopping from branch to branch to find a seed or two here and there of a true understanding of the nature of art and poetry, but it appears that Rae is really skimming the surface of reality to enjoy the morning dew frost, the ephemeral nature of language, rather than the tree of wisdom itself.

[Paul Killebrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flabbergasted, and so quickly.