Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Carroll, Jim - Seamus Cooney (review date 1 November 1973)

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Seamus Cooney (review date 1 November 1973)

SOURCE: A review of Living at the Movies, in Library Journal, Vol. 11, No. 19, November 1, 1973, p. 3270.

[In the following brief review, Cooney faults Carroll's poetry in Living at the Movies.]

These imitative poems range in models from the portentous pseudo-reference of John Ashbery to the flat trivialities of Ted Berrigan—the whole gamut from A to B, in fact. Not one moves or delights, and as for teaching—well, the outlook on life conveyed is the shallowest hedonism based on dope or sex. A piece entitled “A Fragment” has more point than many in the book and shows fairly the pretensions to seriousness, the inertness of rhythm and language, and the utter banality of effect: “When I see a rabbit / crushed by a moving van / I have dreams of maniac computers / miscalculating serious items / pertinent to our lives.” Don’t miscalculate: avoid this book.

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Seamus Cooney (review date 1 November 1973)
   2. Gerard Malanga (review date November 1974)
   3. Jamie James (review date February 1980)
   4. Chet Flippo (essay date 26 January 1981)
   5. Publishers Weekly (review date 4 April 1986)
   6. Daniel L. Guillory (review date 15 April 1986)
   7. Christopher Lehmann-Haupt (review date 9 July 1987)
   8. Peter Delacorte (review date 12 July 1987)
   9. Kirkus Reviews (review date 15 May 1987)
   10. William Hochswender (review date 18 October 1987)
   11. Jim Carroll with Thomas Gladysz (interview date 1987)
   12. Cassie Carter (essay date Winter 1996)
   13. Publishers Weekly (review date 28 September 1998)
   14. Booklist (review date 15 October 1998)
   15. Jim Carroll with Suzan Alteri (interview date 13–19 January 2000)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright