Robert Lowell Setting the River on Fire

 

This was a good biography on the poet Robert Lowell. However, the first fifty pages or so aren't that good. The author rambles about his ancestors for far too long. I thought about giving up the book but once it got started it was pretty good. It describes the link between genius and madness very well. It also goes over his struggle over mania. As well it goes over his three marriages. I thought it was pretty cool that he married female writers specifically. Elizabeth Hardwick comes across as a saint. I got the impression that he took her for granted. I started reading Life Studies recently. I'm new to the author. Frankly I started reading this book because he came across as very likable in the Sylvia Plath biography Red Comet.