The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! 😌
maximef's review against another edition
4.0
Une ode au territoire et à la jeunesse, écartelée entre deux cultures; l’une qui glisse entre les doigts et l’autre qui nous happe avec tous ses artifices.
leonieb8's review against another edition
5.0
Excellent recueil de poésie! La recherche identitaire y est d’une importance vitale et l’autrice oscille entre une culture qu’elle ne connaît que trop peu et une identité urbaine qui ne lui convient pas. Magnifique œuvre.
cieldemayo's review against another edition
« j’ai dans le ventre un ski-doo la nuit sur l’asphalte
avec toutes les étincelles que ça peut faire »
avec toutes les étincelles que ça peut faire »
careinthelibrary's review
3.0
Spare, ambiguous, sometimes quite powerful and beautifully translated.
Poems that touch on land, water, sexuality, 90s culture, alcoholism, and language.
Poems that touch on land, water, sexuality, 90s culture, alcoholism, and language.
lauren_endnotes's review
"At the lake, the fish were looking
for is the ouananiche. In Ilnu:
'she who is found everywhere
or little lost one'"
.
From SPAWN by Marie-Andrée Gill, translated from the French by Kristen Renee Miller, 2015/2020 @bookhug_press
#ReadtheWorld21
for is the ouananiche. In Ilnu:
'she who is found everywhere
or little lost one'"
.
From SPAWN by Marie-Andrée Gill, translated from the French by Kristen Renee Miller, 2015/2020 @bookhug_press
#ReadtheWorld21
littlebookterror's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
 I think this is my first time reading translated poetry? Definitely the first one that draws so heavily on the author's place of birth.
This collection builds up each small, untitled poem to create a picture in your head of the Mashteuiash Reserve and Lake Piekuakami. Gill shows both the beautiful sides - the colours, the nature, her childhood memories - as well as the uglier things - poverty, alcoholism, the outsider looking in.
This collection builds up each small, untitled poem to create a picture in your head of the Mashteuiash Reserve and Lake Piekuakami. Gill shows both the beautiful sides - the colours, the nature, her childhood memories - as well as the uglier things - poverty, alcoholism, the outsider looking in.
the rampart
suspended in time
prams, drunk boys
day and night the dogs
day and night the dandelions push
through cracks in the cement
and before us, the lake
a luck
the lake.
I loved how direct and visual her language was ("varnish half-stripped from our memories") but also sparse, only ever giving glimpses at the life she has lead there. The reader might be allowed in and look around but never too close and always on her own terms.
That said, the collection is not just pretty metaphors, it also serves as a dialogue to explore Gill's feelings as an Indigenous woman on a reservation and how conflicted she is with that identity. Tension comes both from within her community
to smooth the rifts that time
has already scraped down my hide
and from the outside.
I leave a name behind at the border
at the edge of my disorder
All in all, I enjoyed this collection even if I found it too sparse at times.
As per usual, the small snippet of the translator, Kristen Renee Miller, should not be skipped as it gives you further insights into how she approached translating a work that is at its core about ones Indigenous idenitity into another settler language.Â