btmarino84's review against another edition
4.0
This is a kind of classic example of a book of poetry that I would have trouble with. Often the author is clearly wrestling with ideas and references that, as someone who's "not good at" poetry, just simply went over my head. I tried to just relax, and re-read them, and get what I could out of it as much as possible. The ones that struck me the most were:
"Philadelphia, Negro"
"All God's Chillun"
"Wishing Well"
"Epicurus"
"Philadelphia, Negro"
"All God's Chillun"
"Wishing Well"
"Epicurus"
ashponders's review against another edition
4.0
Astonished and a perhaps a bit ashamed I did not love this. I found little to inhabit, moments though obviously authentic, slipped by as alien as ever.
candecast's review against another edition
4.0
An very interesting journey in words, images and ideas. Reading poetry has never been my forte but reading Pardlo has been a whole new experience for me. I'll be reading many of these poems over and over again
giuliagulia's review against another edition
3.0
It's perfectly possible that I don't understand something fundamental about poetry, or that I am viewing it too narrowly, but I have read some poetry lately with very many words that required me to have the dictionary on hand to know their meanings and pronunciations. I say this with some frustration because I studied literature in school, and I wonder if I cannot understand this language, who can? PhDs? I don't know. I'm frustrated with writing that renders itself inaccessible to readers with complications. Maybe that's a specific taste thing, but I think writing should be legible by everyone.
This all being said, Pardlo clearly has a great handle on language. This language is deliberate, and the rhythms in the book are interesting and jarring.
Listen, this book has smart poems, but their inaccessibility made them not worth their while, as far as I was concerned.
This all being said, Pardlo clearly has a great handle on language. This language is deliberate, and the rhythms in the book are interesting and jarring.
Listen, this book has smart poems, but their inaccessibility made them not worth their while, as far as I was concerned.
suddenflamingword's review against another edition
4.0
I wavered between 3 and 4 stars. I've leaned towards 4, a soft 4 you might say, because while some of the poems can come across as over-scholastic in an unengaging way ("Written By Himeself" & "Corrective Lenses: Creative Reading and (Recon)textual/ization" the most explicit culprits), the way Pardlo manages metaphor is comb-tooth precise and its semi-ironic depiction of a "how-to for upwardly mobile black parents beset with the guilt of assimilation" is a clever complex - in all its meanings: suppressed psychology, hidden facility, and multivalent interpretation. It's not for no reason that "Alienation Effects" is the central poem. It's integral to understanding the sentiments of the whole, and literally the centerpiece of the collection. I can't say I loved everything, for whatever that's worth, but I respect it a lot.
abetterbradley's review against another edition
4.0
A lovely collection of poems that won the Pulitzer prize in 2015. I really loved the poetic rifts based on ancient historians.
seebrandyread's review against another edition
5.0
Digest by Gregory Pardlo is a collection of the kind of poems I think many readers have in mind when they say poetry intimidates or scares them. I probably spent about as much time looking up words, people, events, and concepts I was unfamiliar with as I did actually reading the poems, but that work absolutely paid off. Not only did I learn new information, I was enable to engage with the text of the book more fully. These poems are work, but that doesn't mean they're not accessible.
Many of Pardlo's poems are academic, referencing classical philosophers, modern art and artists, with a couple written in the style of the opening of a course syllabus or an entry in an annotated bibliography. They also reference elements of pop culture like Marvel characters and a Led Zeppelin album in a way that questions what we consider high vs. low art. What is worthy of intellectualizing?
Three of my favorite poems appear one after the other and focus on 3 classic works of literature by Black authors: Corregidora by Gayl Jones, Native Son by Richard Wright, and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Each reimagines or focuses on some aspect of each book that clarifies a main theme. The poem about Native Son, "Copyright," gives voice to Wright and Robert Nixon, the man on whom the book is based as well as to Paul Green and Charles Leavell, white men who took advantage of them.
This idea of condensing goes back to the title, Digest, one of the words I looked up. Of its many definitions, two that stood out were to assimilate something mentally or physically and, as a noun, a collection of condensed work such as a body of law, the thing lawyers reference to establish precedence. Many of these poems play on the idea of forebears and fathers: the narrator's own father, the narrator as a father, America's founding fathers, the writers mentioned above, and the many philosophers who make appearances or whose words provide epigraphs for two series of poems.
I don't want to make it seem like all of these poems are dense or require research. There are many that narrate memories or offer humor. I think this is another example of a book where you get out as much as you put in. I feel a little smarter for having read it.
Many of Pardlo's poems are academic, referencing classical philosophers, modern art and artists, with a couple written in the style of the opening of a course syllabus or an entry in an annotated bibliography. They also reference elements of pop culture like Marvel characters and a Led Zeppelin album in a way that questions what we consider high vs. low art. What is worthy of intellectualizing?
Three of my favorite poems appear one after the other and focus on 3 classic works of literature by Black authors: Corregidora by Gayl Jones, Native Son by Richard Wright, and Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. Each reimagines or focuses on some aspect of each book that clarifies a main theme. The poem about Native Son, "Copyright," gives voice to Wright and Robert Nixon, the man on whom the book is based as well as to Paul Green and Charles Leavell, white men who took advantage of them.
This idea of condensing goes back to the title, Digest, one of the words I looked up. Of its many definitions, two that stood out were to assimilate something mentally or physically and, as a noun, a collection of condensed work such as a body of law, the thing lawyers reference to establish precedence. Many of these poems play on the idea of forebears and fathers: the narrator's own father, the narrator as a father, America's founding fathers, the writers mentioned above, and the many philosophers who make appearances or whose words provide epigraphs for two series of poems.
I don't want to make it seem like all of these poems are dense or require research. There are many that narrate memories or offer humor. I think this is another example of a book where you get out as much as you put in. I feel a little smarter for having read it.
candecast's review
4.0
An very interesting journey in words, images and ideas. Reading poetry has never been my forte but reading Pardlo has been a whole new experience for me. I'll be reading many of these poems over and over again
jeeleongkoh's review
4.0
Intellectually challenging, the volume gives no quarter to the reader not up to scratch on Western philosophy, African American history, and popular culture. The music of the poems very often carries me through seas of incomprehension. It is a wry, knowing, and, yes, tragic voice. The last because it understands the situation of loneliness. Despite family, communal, and intellectual ties, the speaker feels his loneliness in the marrow. He makes me feel again mine.
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