The Winged Seed: A Remembrance (American Readers Series)

This is one of the most beautifully written memoirs I've read. I'd be tempted to say that only a poet could have written it, but I can think of no other poet than Lee who could have. The story is moving, and Lee knows how to weave together history and family narrative in a way that is intimate without being embarrassing, and without, on the other extreme, making an extravagant David Lean production. I read it when it first appeared, in the 1990s, and return to it often. I am glad to see it remains available.

A wonderful work by a great poet. A story full biographical facts of a family fleeing aDespotic country and making their way in a new world. A story of faith and survival.

Li-young Lee is one of my very favorite poets, this is my summer reading book!

His poetry gives brushstrokes to unarticulated feelings.

I love his work!

a very personal look in a rather unusal life of the author.

I wanted to love this book, I really did. And I forced myself to stick with it and finish it, even though I found it very difficult to do. It was only 205 pages... you would think I would have finished it in no time, but it took me weeks, mostly because I really wasn't enjoying it.Li-Young Lee is a poet whose work I have respected and often loved. This memoir is, however, written as many of his poems are, moving back and forth between memory, dream, imagination and symbol so fluidly that it can be, at times, excruciatingly difficult to follow.Still, high minded and poetic as I am, I was determined to love even this about the book. But, truth be told, I did not. Some passages were so unusual they just became nonsensical. Interspersed with indecipherable, dreamlike ramblings, were passages of more typical biographical storytelling, which were often wonderful and were the only parts that kept me hanging on, trying to make sense of this book. There were passages I truly loved. Clearly, the author has a story to tell. His life is very interesting and I wanted to know and understand what shaped him. The thrust of much of his writing seems to be trying to make sense of who he is in relation to who his father was, and the tragedies his family endured. This book is no different. But ultimately, for me, the book did not succeed. I really wish that the story could have been told in a more chronological, harmonious whole. A few poetic tangents could have been tolerated. However, it felt as if much of the book was written from some semi lucid state that left me lost and confused. It is rare for me to bother finishing a book and not give it a higher rating but I'm afraid it would be a rare person I would recommend this book to, and then with only with hesitation and qualifications.

The Winged Seed is the most gorgeous book I've ever read. Meticulously gorgeous prose, stunning distillation of emotions. He would never have had to write anything else in order to rank among the greats, as far as I'm concerned.

Enchanting