Reviews

The Pawnbroker's Daughter: A Memoir by Maxine Kumin

davidewright_philosophy's review

2.0

This had some thoughtful poetry in it, and was well written (as one would expect for a renowned poet), though it didn't manage the ever-present danger of memoir (self-indulgence) well at all and fell hard and fast into bourgeois musings about country houses, pets, and neighbors.

dawndeydusk's review

3.0

Lovely little read for a rainy day, particularly the latter half of the memoir. My mistake in reading this was probably that I hadn't read Kumin's poetry beforehand, but I'm still glad to have learned a bit about another life. Perhaps one day I'll revisit, but for now I'll admire this quote from one of her poems from afar:

"I honor shit for saying: We go on" (122).