Some Ether is a search for meaning, a patchwork of fragmented memories, clues from a vast past taped together, red thread winding through clusters linked by a desperate mind. Flynn is haunted by the self-destructiveness of people around him: primarily his parents, but also a drug-addict childhood friend, society's dispossessed.The poems are primarily driven by images, each one following after the previous like a slow-motion reel or slideshow. There are some beautiful images in this collection: "...

Some Ether is a downer. Normally, I am one to cling to depressing topics as a form of art and expression; you always get the best reaction from an audience that way. However, when it comes to Some Ether I don’t feel anything. I could never connect to his words because it felt as though he, himself didn't understand them. The book itself deals with suicide, death, loss of human contact and the inability to move on. It is split into four sections that focus on his mother, before and after her suic...

Some Ether was the twelfth book in my October poetry project, a reread of a collection by one of my favorite poets. Perhaps because I've read so much more of Nick Flynn's work since I first read this, it resonated even more strongly with me this time around. Also, I purchased this book at a Nick Flynn reading I attended while on a work trip in Seattle, and that is one of my favorite memories of the last several years and makes me love the book even more. Four stars on first read, five stars for

I went out on a limb and bought a book of poetry based on the goodreads star rating of someone I don't know who seemed to have decent taste in obscure literature. Plus, I am trying to make an effort to read living poets who write in English.Of Flynn's first four poems, three were about suicide, two referenced guns, two referenced painkillers (by brand name) and one mentions cutting himself. It only got worse from there. Blah blah "my father is . . . a bottle wrapped in a paperbag" blah blah "she...

This review is incomplete because I need to read Some Ether again. This is not only the first book of poetry, but the first book period that I've ever wanted to re-read as soon as I finished it. Okay: want is slightly misleading. I feel I need to read it again, just to fully understand and appreciate the whole thing. But, as far as any sort of guiding recommendation, here's what I can offer: not for the faint of heart. Sorry, that's all I've got. More later.

Thanks to Erin for recommending this book to me. Startling imagery. Unflinching vision.

this book gets better with second and third readings, and it succeeds because he's restrained as he's writing about these two people who have failed him as parents. he never has to bemoan the fact that they're bad parents, only has to show the way their behavior has shaped his emotional experience and there you have it.poems in the first section cluster around living with his depressed and erratic mother before her suicide, and the following section shows him constructing a life in her absence.

Some Ether by Nick Flynn. Graywolf Press. May 2000.“Some Ether” written by Nick Flynn is a collection of dark poems that seeks to revisit the tragedies of his childhood. The speaker in each poem seeks deliverance as he is desperate to find love, understanding and closure to surpass the demons that haunt him. It is evident that Flynn has grown from these life-changing experiences, never allowing to be submerged into self destruction. He uses words as a force to work though dealing with his mother...

I loved Flynn's poetry book about bees: Blind Huber. It was gorgeous, and didn't exhaust the subject, which often happens with poetry books that have just one topic.Some Ether is also fantastic. I read some of the poems from this book when it first came out because some of them were on Poetry Daily. I don't think they featured the best poems. I think the best poems in this book are the darker ones.Most of the poems in this book are about life with his mother, who committed suicide when he was yo...

Many do not know that Nick Flynn is a poet, in fact, I had no idea when I met him a couple years ago. Some reviewers on Goodreads have criticized Flynn for his candidness about his life, and his parents (which most know a little about from his other work, or from the film "Being Flynn". One reviewer even ranted that it was a "poor me" collection of poems about suicide, schizophrenia, and self harm. I think these reviewers know little about poetry, and quite possible missed the point of this coll...

Some Ether is Nick Flynn's debut collection of poetry, winner of the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award (1999), and an astounding work of beauty wrapped in a ball of pain.Flynn takes us on a journey through his childhood- divorce parents, a troubled mother, strange men, and his mother's suicide. Pretty dark stuff, but written with a sense of enlightenment. The way he recalls these memories is so poetic and honest, it's what I hope to achieve every time I write but I'm nowhere near as graceful.After I rea...

I first encountered Nick Flynn's work at a reading I attended for extra credit. I left speechless - I wanted to tell everyone how exquisite, thoughtful, deliberate, melodical Flynn's words were, but I felt there was no way I could do his poems justice. Instead, I bought two copies of "Some Ether" - one for me to keep, the other to thrust into the hands of anyone and everyone who would accept.

Nick Flynn’s book really moved me. Growing up in a seriously dysfunction home with a depressive mother, I was able to relate to the subject matter of this collections of poems. Flynn is excellent at expressing the horrors of his mother’s suicide very dramatically without ever being maudlin or melodramatic

pain and the power of beautiful writing is what i learned from this book. the author writes about his beautiful doomed mother in a way that invokes not pity but love and longing. the unusual poetic narrative shows us an almost hard to look at picture of what a mother can mean to a little boy and the man he becomes.. read this book even if you don`t usually read poetry.

I really dig Flynn's style of poetry. This combination of imagery and more straight "confessional" autobio stuff is really breathtaking.

Re-reading. This book owes a lot to confessional poetry, to Sexton, to Plath, to Dickinson. the poet doesn't transcend, he self-destructs. he is concerned with his parents, sex, art and drugs. if you are in a place where you're like 'fuck sad whiteboy poets and their lives i don't care', this book won't speak to you. Now that you know what you're getting -- Nick is a deft poet, has his clearly defined subject matter (mom dies of suicide on the first page, self destructing son, disappointing fath...

Nick Flynn's _Some Ether_ receives three stars from me. The poems are fine, but none really stand out in my memory.What I remember most are the ideas or the situations that Flynn builds in the poems as a whole. This not a collection of happy poems or hopeful poems, even when a poem has a slight happiness to it there is always a cloud around. The poems all seem free verse to me, but I could be wrong. I didn't count syllables. Visually the poems have a varied look on the pages, which I liked. I gu...

I really enjoyed Flynn's "another bullshit night in suck city: A memoir" and naturally assumed that sense and style of prose would follow henceforth in a book of poetry. For the most part, Flynn stuck to his guns writing directly from his guts and heart no matter the outcome. As with most poetry, the words are just a guideline, the reader creates the imagery and meaning from the words in front of them.The meaning I got from at least 80% of the poems in this book, was complete and on uncontrollab...

A dark, beautiful debut collection in which Flynn comes to face many of the ghosts of his past--his dead mother, his homeless father, a wayward version of himself trying desperately to love but seeming to screw up along the way. While he never quite reaches redemption, by the end the speaker in many of these poems at least can imagine the possibility of it, which is a huge step.Prior to reading this, I read Flynn's memoir Another Bullshit Night In Suck City. While I preferred this book, I feel l...

Nick Flynn's first published book. It's just incredible, refreshing, heartbreaking, and inspiring. I've probably read it dozens of times and never get bored. His voice is just the right combo of intense and reflective. He also achieves this remarkable balance between commmenting on a rather insane childhood without letting it totally define who is his, or allow it to become a pity party. It's like if Sharon Olds could let go of her bitterness and just take it all in from a different vantage poin...