SOURCE: Evenson, Brain. Review of Plainwater, by Anne Carson. Review of Contemporary Fiction 15, no. 3 (fall 1995): 253-54.

In the following review, Evenson asserts that the poetry and essays in Plainwater are sensitive, visionary, and erudite without becoming obscure.

Anne Carson's poetry and essays are such that often it is difficult to tell which is which—the essays have a near perfect command of the rhythms and sounds of sentences. The poetry as well often exhibits an astuteness common in excellent scholars and prose writers, but does so without sacrificing the poetic line.

At her best, Carson's imagination is so vivid and the links she makes so unexpected that her images are revelatory, skirting the very edge of madness. At her worst, which is seldom, a pretentiousness can creep into her style. “Short Talks”—tiny prose poems on discrete subjects that somehow bind into a larger web—works very well...