Volume 10 165
Henry, Brian, “Exquisite Disjunctions, Exquisite Arrange-
ments: Jorie Graham’s ‘Strangeness of Strategy,’” in The
Antioch Review,Vol. 56, No. 3, Summer, 1998, pp. 281-94.
Intriguing article that argues that Graham is one of
very few female poets to achieve success using the
long line. Henry claims that Graham has developed
three distinctive, significant styles in employing this
poetic strategy.
Olsen, William, “Lyric Detachment: Two New Books of Po-
etry (Jorie Graham’s Region of Unlikeness, Chase
Twichell’s Perdido),” in Chicago Review,Vol. 38, No. 3,
1991, pp. 76-89.
Olsen claims that both poets make a deliberate effort
to distance themselves from life’s experiences, yet it
is this detachment that attracts the reader. For Olsen,
Graham is more abstract and achieves a unity in con-
flicting ideas.
Spiegelman, Willard, “Jorie Graham’s ’New Way of Look-
ing,’” in Salmagundi,Fall, 1998, pp. 244-76.
Focusing on her constructs and interpretations of per-
ception and description, Spiegelman explores Gra-
ham’s use of painting as a metaphor for seeing the
world.
Vendler, Helen, The Breaking of Style,Harvard University
Press, 1995.
Vendler argues that Graham, like Seamus Heaney
and Gerard Manley Hopkins evinces a break in style
over her career. Focusing on the individual line,
Vendler suggests that Graham find herself writing a
poetry of excess via a move to longer, more dis-
junctive lines.
———, The Given and the Made,Faber and Faber, 1995.
Vendler considers Graham’s poetry alongside that of
Robert Lowell, John Berryman, and Rita Dove.
Drawing on both biographical and thematic issues,
Vendler argues that Graham’s poetry seeks a resolu-
tion to numerous tensions, both personal and politi-
cal.
———, review of Region of Unlikeness,in The New York
Times Review of Books,Vol. 38, No. 19, November 21,
1991, pp. 50-57.
Though she doesn’t mention “The Hiding Place,”
Vendler placesRegion of Unlikenessin the context
of Graham’s larger poetic project. Ultimately,
Vendler’s review of Graham’s book is overwhelm-
ingly positive.The Hiding Place