New Life
Dan O’Brien’s War Reporter—described in the Guardian as “a masterpiece of truthfulness and feeling, and a completely sui generis addition not just to writing about war but to contemporary poetry”—was the fruit of a bond between the poet and the war correspondent Paul Watson that demanded of each an extreme degree of self-exposure. In New Life the scope of that bond is both deepened and broadened, taking in not just the Arab Spring and its aftermath in Syria, Libya and Egypt but Afghans on the tourist trail in Canada, meetings with Hollywood producers, and changes in the personal lives of the war reporter and the poet. Nothing is off-limits. This is a way of writing unique in contemporary literature.
REVIEWS
“Auden, in his introduction to a collection of poems by Cavafy, declared that one duty of the poet is to bear witness to the truth, and words of witness, it goes without saying, are too precious to waste. O’Brien, a prize-winning playwright, poet and recent Guggenheim recipient, understands this, as his latest collection, New Life, makes devastatingly clear. Part of what makes this volume so strong is that though there is an unforced order to the pieces, and a basic coherence, each stands alone, demanding, without being a harangue, to be heard, to be absorbed, and not to stand idly by in our world so in need of informed citizenship. Each one of the poems here is more necessary than the last . . . [An] original voice speaks, on a plane with earlier masters.”
―Barbara Berman, The Rumpus
“Dan O’Brien’s style is at once an obstacle and a thing of genius. At every opportunity he flattens his authorial voice to that of amanuensis—most of the sections include Watson-the-war-reporter doing something or other—and one poem startles us with rhymed couplets, as if to accentuate the telegraphic style of the rest, where only the juxtaposition of past and present brings order to what otherwise would seem to be passively recorded details.”
―James Matthew Wilson, The Weekly Standard
“This book deserves more praise than I have room—for its courage, for its innovation, for its empathy—and other critics have and will say more. But as for me, New Life left me wanting to read more from Dan O’Brien rather than more about his book. His is the type of poetry we cannot afford to neglect or neglect to return to.”
―Joshua Jones, Breakwater Review
“These poems are gorgeous and ironic and heartbreaking and angry and uplifting and tough-minded and compassionate and completely amazing. New Life is a triumph. Art wins, war loses.”
―Tim O’Brien
“These are powerful and original poems. I don’t know anything like them. They are terrifying and beautiful. Sometimes terrifyingly beautiful. Don’t leave this book on a doily in your parlor. Instead, nail it to the door of every church, mosque, temple, and government office in the world. This is the poetry of courage.”
―Thomas Lux
“With a reporter’s zeal, in poems marked by crisp speech and a piercing, melancholy humor, O’Brien reminds us that the facts of war, suicide, illness, family, and much else remain largely unintelligible until they are redeemed for us by poetry’s living truth.”
―David Yezzi
INTERVIEWS
Dan O’Brien and Paul Watson interviewed by Joseph Planta for The Commentary
“On New Life: An Interview with Dan O’Brien” in Michigan Quarterly Review
EXCERPTS
“"The War Reporter Paul Watson Has Some Dialogue For Future Use" in The Sunday Times
A Poem from New Life at ForeignPolicy.com