Is an Ironic Review of James Franco's Poetry the Best 'The New York Times Book Review' Can Do? Is an Ironic Review of James Franco’s Poetry the Best ‘The New York Times Book Review’ Can Do?

By Elisabeth Donnelly on Jul 18, 2014 - Flavorwire

In this Sunday’s New York Times Book Review, the poetry columnist David Orr writes an excellent piece on James Franco’s poetry. Orr reviews Franco’s newest collection, Directing Herbert White, released by Graywolf Press in March — and instead of judging Franco’s work through the scrim of the cult of celebrity, he takes it, generally, at its worth: “Directing Herbert White is the sort of collection written by reasonably talented M.F.A. students in hundreds of M.F.A. programs stretching from sea to shining sea.” He compliments the good wordplay: “‘This despair is nice’: The tone is neatly judged,” and he goes in on the bad lines: “He’s prone to phrases that sound good at first but collapse under scrutiny (‘Webbed by a nexus of stone walkways’).”
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