Reviews

The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics and Madness of Ezra Pound by Daniel Swift

micromys's review

2.0

This was a disappointing read, never quite held together in a form coherent enough to really tell the story of Ezra Pound and the period spent at St. Elizabeth's. The nature of his incarceration maybe prevents a more complete narrative, so all we really learn about is Pound's influence on those who visited him, but it lacked something and left me frustrated. Perhaps I was led to expect more because of the book's subtitle - where was the poetry and the politics, or more to the point how did this period of Pound's life shape these things?

Pound remains a challenging figure, the character in a film or story to whom you can never warm. Such a character prevents any real appreciation of the story and that was the case here for me.