What I can't bear losing

Description

"In this collection of personal essays, which includes seven new pieces, Stern speaks on subjects closest to his heart--family, justice, Jewishness, ecstasy, loss, and love. He ranges from literary discussions to anecdotes and gives readers a glimpse of the poetic process"--Provided by publisher.

Description

"In a series of freewheeling rambles that combine autobiography and meditation, Gerald Stern explores significant and representative events in his life. He describes the dour Sundays of Calvinist Pittsburgh, punctuated by his parents' weekly battles. We see glimpses of him as a wilderness camp counselor, and later, having been declared 4-F, as a postwar draftee (a stint that includes jail). In the 1950s he savors the romance of Paris. He also tells of being shot in Newark - the bullet is still in his neck to prove it. Other scenes include being mistaken for Allen Ginsberg and encounters with Andy Warhol. And in the ineffably tender "The Ring," Stern recalls his mother's second engagement ring, "when they were a bit richer, if a bit broader and a bit more weary.""--Jacket.

Subjects

Genres

• Biography.

Other Editions

• What I Can't Bear Losing: Notes from a LifeW. W. Norton & Company2003-11-01
• What I can't bear losingW.W. Norton2004
• What I can't bear losingTrinity University Press2009-01-01