Olds, Sharon

The Unswept Room

ISBN: 0375709983
New York, NY, USA: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. First Edition. Softcover. "These are poems that strike for the heart, as Sharon Olds captures our imaginations with unexpected wordplay, sprung rhythms, and the disquieting revelation of ordinary life." (from back cover). The Unswept Room is American poet Sharon Olds' (b. 1942) seventh collection, and was a finalist for the 2002 National Book Award. Olds published her first collection, Satan Says, at thirty-seven, after being told her domestic subject matter wasn't poetry's business. The title comes from the "asarotos oikos," the Roman "unswept floor" mosaic: a banquet-hall pavement tiled to depict the debris of the meal just eaten (fish bones, claws, shells, pits) rendered with such illusionistic care that the floor's refuse becomes the luxury object. The title poem (pg. 123) opens as a flat inventory of exactly that debris, then turns: the scraps are read as offerings left for the dead, and finally as crumbs from under love's table. That gesture is the book's whole method in miniature: the leavings of a life, catalogued without hierarchy, and only at the end revealed as a form of devotion. Olds' signature devices are all here: the long breath-driven sentence spilling across short lines, the em-dash accretion, the deliberately ugly or clinical noun set beside a tender one, the poem that earns its ending by a single late swerve into metaphor, and "The Unswept Room" is usually placed among her strongest books for that reason. For more from the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry-winning Olds, please see Item No.s 8497 & 9404. From the collection of Albert Glover (1942-2026), the esteemed American poet, editor, bibliographer, publisher & academician who was the foremost remaining authority on Charles Olson (1910-1970). Glover was a student of & anointed by the Maximus Master himself at SUNY Buffalo during the 1960s, & had ever since served outstandingly to bear the Olsonian Torch. Third Mind Books is deeply saddened by the recent passing of our friend & mentor. Softcover Original: First Edition as stated at copyright page, first printing though not explicated as such thereon. A most collectible book of poetry in its rarest contemporary form with relevant association & very distinguished provenance. In relatively very fine condition with occasions of very mild rubbing to fine edges of front, back covers & spine; mild vertical creasing along front cover/spine; mild age-toning & rubbing to text block. Interior very fine with no discernible flaws. Very Fine. [Item #9402]

Price: $30.00 save 10% $27.00