Rating: 
Summary: More anecdotes, please!
Review: "The Virgin at Bennington" gives you a glimpse into writer and theologian Kathleen Norris' early career as an arts administrator and poet in New York City. When she is telling stories and letting the reader see how they informed her later life and faith, this work shines. However, occasionally, she descends into routine descriptions of events, coupled with long lists of names of the poets she worked with. Although the work was enjoyable, I would rather have seen more shaping around the incidents described, and less straight description. As it is, I am not sure if I read a history of the American poetry in the 1970's, a biography or spiritual memoir. If I could, I would give it three and a half stars.
Rating:
Summary: An honest. .
Review: . . . with a somewhat misleading title, autobiographical "look back" at the influences which shaped the life of the author, poet Nathleen Norris.From her extremely sheltered background to the crazed culture of drugs and sex at Bennington in the late 1960's through her own personal conversion experience, this book traces the life -- and loves -- of an extraordinary 20th century American woman. The book will not satisfy all. The ultra-conservative will be uncomfortable with the sexual honesty expressed by the author; the far-left will be equally uncomfortable with the author's spiritual awakening and personal conversion. Those persons either too young to remember or too old to have been quite so involved in the whirlwind which "was" the late '60's and early '70's in the United States will be uncomfortable with the author's honesty about her own activities, both positive and negative. Nevertheless, the story is in the journey -- and the journey is told with depth, with clarity, and with honesty. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Was the title picked by someone who had read the book?
Review: A valuable history of several decades of poetry and "poetry politics" in the United States. As many other reviewers have noted, the title has little connection, however, to the contents. This fact was annoying to me, and perhaps detracted from my appreciation of the book's contents.
Rating:
Summary: Was the title picked by someone who had read the book?
Review: A valuable history of several decades of poetry and "poetry politics" in the United States. As many other reviewers have noted, the title has little connection, however, to the contents. This fact was annoying to me, and perhaps detracted from my appreciation of the book's contents.
Rating: 
Summary: False advertising
Review: Don't be misled by the promotion: this book is only 20% coming-of-age memoir. (Although, given how dislikable the author's youthful self is - charmlessly naive, blandly self-forgiving as she sleeps with a married professor, etc. - that might be a good thing.) The other 80% is a heartfelt but numbingly repetitive tribute to the author's mentor - an apparently beloved promoter of poetry causes who nonetheless falls short, in my opinion, of living up to the grand claims Norris makes for her. (While offering an unending stream of advice, not all of it solicited, the mentor usually demonstrates nothing more remarkable than a fine grasp of the obvious.) It's an awkward mix that gives the book an unsatisfying shape. Then there's Norris's pedestrian prose (describing her uninformed encounters with campus promiscuity and drug use as "like being Alice in Wonderland"), tedious name-dropping (not even resulting in any good gossip), and ungiftedness at truly understanding herself or anyone else (her portraits of Gerard Malanga and Jim Carroll, just to mention two men she claims were important in her life, are no more insightful than the average celebrity profile in a magazine). The unabridged audio version is a special torment. Sandra Burr sounds a bit like "Fresh Air" host Terry Gross but has a prim, Doris Day-ish sort of delivery that, while faithful to the narration's insipidity, becomes unendurable over the course of 8 hours.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful memories, a good read.
Review: Good book to read with a cup of coffee. I would like a sequel please! Perhaps a more detailed look at life after having moved to South Dakota? Just a thought....
Rating: 
Summary: A flawed, but illuminating memoir
Review: Good people should not write memoirs. In The Virgin of Bennington, Kathleen Norris recalls Elizabeth Kray, long time doyen of the Manhattan poetry world. Norris serves as tour guide through the glittering world of arts and literature as the baby boom generation was coming of age. In a milieu of sex, drugs and rampant psychoses, Kray and the Academy of American Poets provided a stable and sober structure for the dissemination of poetry and the sustenance of poets. Norris, as an employee of the Academy, a poet, and friend and companion of Kray, takes us on a bus tour of the Manhattan arts scene during this era. The problem is that Norris' basic decency works against the narrative. In abiding by the maxim "If you can't say anything good about a person, just mention their name" Norris brings us to a party and points out all the glitterati in the room, but doesn't introduce us to them. Beyond the name-dropping, there is much to be gotten from this book. Norris gives us a good look at the passion for poetry that was the core of Elizabeth Kray's being. She introduces us to the idea that poetry is to be heard, not read. Norris also shows us how poetry, good poetry, that is, is not genteel and delicate. It is hard-edged and difficult. It is passionate. Maybe this is why the only poetry that most contemporary Americans are exposed to is in songs. Maybe it also explains the (to me) incomprehensible popularity of hip-hop. In sum, The Virgin of Bennington is not about virginity, nor is it (except for the brief introductory chapter) about Bennington. It is about an extraordinary person, Betty Kray, and her exceptional creativity and energy in the service of poetry. It is also, indirectly, a story about the love that one gifted artist has for her mentor.
Rating:
Summary: A flawed, but illuminating memoir
Review: Good people should not write memoirs. In The Virgin of Bennington, Kathleen Norris recalls Elizabeth Kray, long time doyen of the Manhattan poetry world. Norris serves as tour guide through the glittering world of arts and literature as the baby boom generation was coming of age. In a milieu of sex, drugs and rampant psychoses, Kray and the Academy of American Poets provided a stable and sober structure for the dissemination of poetry and the sustenance of poets. Norris, as an employee of the Academy, a poet, and friend and companion of Kray, takes us on a bus tour of the Manhattan arts scene during this era. The problem is that Norris' basic decency works against the narrative. In abiding by the maxim "If you can't say anything good about a person, just mention their name" Norris brings us to a party and points out all the glitterati in the room, but doesn't introduce us to them. Beyond the name-dropping, there is much to be gotten from this book. Norris gives us a good look at the passion for poetry that was the core of Elizabeth Kray's being. She introduces us to the idea that poetry is to be heard, not read. Norris also shows us how poetry, good poetry, that is, is not genteel and delicate. It is hard-edged and difficult. It is passionate. Maybe this is why the only poetry that most contemporary Americans are exposed to is in songs. Maybe it also explains the (to me) incomprehensible popularity of hip-hop. In sum, The Virgin of Bennington is not about virginity, nor is it (except for the brief introductory chapter) about Bennington. It is about an extraordinary person, Betty Kray, and her exceptional creativity and energy in the service of poetry. It is also, indirectly, a story about the love that one gifted artist has for her mentor.
Rating:
Summary: Revelation of a Saint
Review: I always assumed that Norris, like many folks in the 60's who found themselves disenfranchised with relegion, to have found conversion with the death of a loved one. Even though the death of her grandmother Totten provided an escape from New York, I found her journey to self-discovery and her own voice both enlightening, and revealing. I had previously assumed Norris to be more saintly than how she portrays herself here in this biogrpahy. I appreciate her honesty and found myself unable to put the book down.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I have read, reread, recommended, and given as gifts both Dakota and The Cloister Walk. I have seen Kathleen Norris speak. I couldn't wait for her next book, but what a disappointment. It should have been titled How I became Betty Kray or The History of Poetry in the United States. There was little of herself in the book and little of her writing. The historical perspective was interesting, but that was about it. Maybe I missed the big picture, but I don't think so. A quick read--wait for the paperback.
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