By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept

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This is about love, desperation, and mental disparity (contemplated suicide also plays a role here). It is beautiful and disjointed; somber, yet hopeful; trenchant, yet gracious, and articulate, but at times, also reticent. Elizabeth Smart: Manuscript Gallery at Literary Manuscripts Collection of Library and Archives Canada

In an essay for Open Letters Monthly, Ingrid Norton stated "the power of emotion to transform one’s perspective on the world is the theme of this wildly poetic novel", calling it "a howl of a book, shot through with vivid imagery and ecstatic language, alternately exasperating and invigorating". En Grand Central Station me senté y lloré' de Elizabeth Smart es un libro escrito en prosa poética y en un estilo delicado y sensual que ningún hombre podría imitar aunque lo intentara (un estilo que me recuerda terriblemente al de Jeanette Winterson, pero también un poco al de Janet Frame, o Jean Rhys, o A.S. Byatt). Elizabeth Smart es una escritora canadiense que se trasladó a Londres para estudiar música. Allí, un día, como por azar, entró en una librería y compró un libro de poesía de George Barker, y se enamoró no sólo de los poemas sino también del escritor. Pasó un tiempo, por fin lo conoció y, a pesar de que él ya estaba casado, empezaron una relación tempestuosa de la que nacieron cuatro hijos. La relación se terminó, pero ella no dejó de amarlo. 'En Grand Central Station' se basa en esta relación. Es una obra en la que los hechos externos nos son dados en cuentagotas. Más que narrar hechos, describe sentimientos, prescindiendo de prácticamente todo lo externo. Así la narradora describe por los estadios que pasa en su relación amorosa: esperanza, sentimiento de culpa, alegría, plenitud, duda, decepción, miedo, alejamiento, rabia, tristeza, vacío, etc. I am standing on a corner in Monterey, waiting for the bus to come in, and all the muscles of my will are holding my terror to face the moment I most desire. Y pese a tanto sufrimiento, Smart expone claramente su preferencia por esta destructora cara del amor si la alternativa es la mera indiferencia. Pues no querría yo sentir una pasión tan desgarradora, ni que la sintieran por mí, no querría ser yo, no soy, esta yonqui del sentimiento que rehúsa cualquier método de desintoxicación y capaz de decir:For who plans suicide sitting in the sun? It is the pile of dust under the bed, the dirty sheets that were never washed, that precipitate fatal action. For some of the people / some of the times, I mean (being old enough to know those who have made it into something sustainable). Injure me, betray me, but only make me sure of the love, for all day and night, away from him and with him, everywhere and always, that is my gravity, and the apples (which ben ripe in my gardayne) fall only towards that. Yes, but I get confused. One day she saw a golden oriel in the orchard. One day she said, Then have your orgy with Blondie, work out your passion on her.

Excerpts from the novel, and other of the author's writings, feature in Elizabeth Smart: On The Side of the Angels (1991), an hour-long documentary of the writer, written and directed by Maya Gallus. What hand of fate placed this book in my path after I'd finished a long series of Muriel Spark books I do not know. All I know is that I found myself taking this book home and loving it all evening, and all through the next day, and when I reached the end, I started loving it all over again from the beginning, this time reveling in the difference between it and Spark's books. Where Spark is all concision, Smart is all excess, where Spark is firm and trim, Smart is soft and yielding. I didn't know I needed this excess of words, this soft pulpy innerness, but I did. I see now that I was thirsty for writing that had feelings and heart instead of control and cleverness. I just didn't know it. El resultado es un texto emocionante, poético, de una sensualidad abrumadora, en la que los sentimientos se expresan a veces como un grito desgarrador y otras a través de referencias a la mitología y a la Biblia, a los clásicos, al Cantar de los cantares, a Rilke, a algunos de los poetas ingleses más relevantes de los últimos siglos, como Milton, Blake o Auden y, por supuesto, a Shakespeare –ahí está el famoso monólogo de Macbeth, del que también han bebido Javier Marías o Faulkner–. Estas referencias no son un intento de lucimiento intelectual, ni un ejercicio de estilo; sencillamente la autora necesitó echar mano de todas las herramientas que tenía a su alcance, desde la cultura clásica hasta los anuncios de la radio, para esculpir un monumento al amor, a la valentía y a la libertad tan extraordinario e inolvidable. when i was fifteen, i had a journal. and i would smoke a joint and lie on my tummy and record my huge earthshattering thoughts.In the 1930's, Elizabeth Smart was browsing a London bookstore on Charring Cross Road, when she came across a book of poetry written by British poet George Barker, and instantly fell in love with the man, never having met him, and declaring him the love of her life. This epiphany would eventually bring them together, and even though he was married, they would begin a love affair that would last for years, produce four children, and cause untold grief and heartache for everyone involved. When you keep that in mind while you are reading, you can see the beauty of what she is saying, and the genius in the writing of it. No, I believe you, of course, I believe you for didn't you say I was the one? Yes, you said, Take care of this girl for she is what makes my blood circulate and all the stars revolve and the seasons return. I will mention the references to the Songs of Solomon, how the depth of their nuance add to the lyrical movement of this classic piece; how I was pleasantly surprised to see these familiar words presented in this book : Very divided about this book, hence the 3 stars. On the one hand, gorgeous gorgeous prose: there were many sentences I read over and over. And the subject matter--obsessive love--is conveyed with the sort of honesty that's humbling ("honesty" actually feels pretty pallid when applied to Elizabeth Smart, but I can't think of a word that means "beyond honesty").

ugh. i can feel raymond carver hurling an empty bottle of booze at this sentence in disgust, and for once, i am with him. Anarchist Surrealism & Canadian Apocalyptic Modernism: Allusive Political Praxis in Elizabeth Smart’s By Grand Central Station I Sat Down And Wept" by James Giffordokay, so i have been really sad for a couple of days now. and i have reread great swathes of this book under the influence of my own ragged emotions.and i am ashamed to admit that i like it more now. i have to keep the two-stars for that is how i felt when i really read it, but might i suggest reading this when you are in the throes of some sort of emotional tidal wave?? it was not meant for happy eyes. although there still isn't any shame copulating with any houseflies here at my place.