Reviews

The Fire of Joy: Roughly 80 Poems to Get by Heart and Say Aloud by Clive James

c8kodo's review

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Having been a great fan of Clive James’s writing since the 1970s, I was hoping he would unlock the Parnassus mysteries for me. But alack alas ’twas not to be and I felt I was merely an ignorant bumpkin sitting in the shadows of the Oxbridge club while the (t)wits bantered and cajoled - “Ah! Very witty Clive!” - about the arcane world of poetry in language too abstruse for me. 
And every mention of the other half of humanity, too few voices represented here, is merely to bear witness to the talent of the first or the beauty of the other. Clive is not complimentary of any of their voices here.

freemorpheme's review

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challenging inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.75

bluejay21's review against another edition

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informative inspiring reflective relaxing slow-paced

5.0

lizziethereader's review

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3.0

I picked this up because I liked the idea of a poetry collection that also provides some commentary on the poems. However, the author is unfortunately very opinionated and I do wish it was more of a general comment on the poems, their authors and the context of their creation rather than the author's personal judgment of these things. 
When it comes to the poems themselves, I did like a few of them but not as many as I would have hoped, considering it's such a curated collection. 

sapphosinging's review

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

3.5

siobhanh's review

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adventurous challenging hopeful reflective slow-paced

4.0

mollyybrunton_'s review

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emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

lucyjr's review

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emotional funny reflective slow-paced

4.0

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