Strange Paradise: Portrait of a Marriage

by Grace Schulman

Overview

A New York Times Book Review New&Noteworthy Selection

"Grace Schulman makes me want to live to be four hundred years old, because she makes me feel there is so much out there, and it's unbearable to miss any of it."—Wallace Shawn

The romance of Grace Schulman and her husband, Jerome, a distinguished scientist, burgeons in New York’s Greenwich Village amid the cultural revolution of the 1960s. Their bond stays brilliantly alive through various trials, including a decade of living apart. "In my experience, the phrase 'happy marriage' is as oxymoronic as 'friendly fire' or 'famous poet.' My marriage has been a feast of contradiction. . . "

Schulman's passion for poetry leads to adventurous times as Poetry Editor of the Nation and Director of the Poetry Center of the 92nd Street Y. The lives of Grace and Jerome are illuminated by friendships with, among others, Marianne Moore, W. S. Merwin, and Richard Yates. In caring for her ailing husband Grace finds her highest calling, and her deepest grief in his loss. Her survival through sorrow will bring solace to all who read about it.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781885983626
Publisher:	Turtle Point Press
Publication date:	08/21/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Grace Schulman is an acclaimed poet, most recently recipient of the Frost Medal for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in American Poetry, the highest award of the Poetry Society of America. Among her other honors are the Aiken Taylor Award for poetry, the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, New York University's Distinguished Alumni Award, a Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts, and four Pushcart Prizes. Schulman is the author of seven collections of poems, including Without a Claim, her most recent, and Days of Wonder: New and Selected Poems, a Library Journal Best Books of the Year. Her prose essays are collected in First Loves and Other Adventures, and she is editor of The Poems of Marianne Moore. Schulman is former director of the Poetry Center, 92nd Street Y, and former poetry editor of the Nation. She is Distinguished Professor of English at Baruch College, CUNY.

Table of Contents

1 The Fountain 1

2 Origins 15

3 Twisted Branches 29

4 High Noon 41

5 The Choice 51

6 The Long-Legged Fly 59

7 The Crash 75

8 The Mystery of Marriage 79

9 Both of Us Together, Each Apart 89

10 Parallel Lives 111

11 Blind Moles 121

12 The Heart 131

13 The Turning Point 145

14 Moon Shell 153

15 Facing It 167

16 The Fall 175

17 The Afterglow 185

Coda 199

Editorial Reviews

"Schulman is a torch."—Richard Howard

From the Publisher

2018-05-23
A poet reflects on her long marriage and struggle to define her own career.In a graceful, engaging memoir, Schulman (English/Baruch Coll., CUNY; Without a Claim, 2013, etc.)—former poetry editor of the Nation, director of the Poetry Center at the 92nd Street Y, and winner of the Frost Medal for Distinguished Lifetime Achievement in American Poetry—writes candidly about her marriage to virologist Jerome Schulman, her literary aspirations, and her grief following her husband's recent death. She takes her title from lines by Marianne Moore, describing marriage as "that strange paradise / unlike flesh, gold, or stately buildings / the choicest part of my life." Schulman met Moore when she was 14, the beginning of a warm friendship. She edited an authorized edition of Moore's poems and focused on her work in her doctoral dissertation. Many other poets, writers, and artists make appearances as Schulman recounts the trajectory of her career. These include novelist Richard Yates; poets W.S. Merwin, Joseph Brodsky, and Derek Walcott; critic Irving Howe, and many of the acclaimed writers—e.g., James Baldwin, Allen Ginsberg, Robert Lowell, and Octavio Paz—Schulman invited to the 92nd Street Y. Much of the memoir focuses less on her marriage than her achievements in the literary world. Schulman married reluctantly, fearful of giving up her independence, but her husband never failed in encouraging her to write and submit her work for publication; she chafed, though, at being dependent on his income as she embarked on her career, and her resentment "seeped into our marriage like smoke." With their discovery of Jerome's infertility and their inability to talk frankly about adoption, the marriage foundered, leading to a 10-year separation. "My marriage," she admits, "has been a feast of contradiction: radiance and dissatisfaction; intense loyalties and devastating treacheries; freedom and the sacrifice, albeit willing, of independence; excitement and a kind of pleasant boredom." They reunited only to then face Jerome's illness and a heart attack, followed by years of suffering and deterioration.An affecting recollection of a life rich in literature and love.

Kirkus Reviews