lokster71's review
4.0
This is a collection of poems, divided into three main sections and bookend by two unattached poems.
Like a lot of the poetry I have read this isn't an easy read.
The first section, in particular, 'Welfare Handbook' I found hard to get my head around, until almost the end and then I re-read it all with a little more understanding. This isn't a complaint by the way. I don't think everything should be easy. There's a place in everyone's reading life for the simple and the difficult; the clear and the opaque. 'Welfare Handbook' is about Eric Gill, the sculptor and letter cutter who also sexually abused both of his daughters.
The second section 'Headland', I found easier to understand and loved the language. 'Pigment' I really liked. There was something about that poem that got really under the skin, even if I can't entirely explain why. It is the way a tune or a piece of abstract art can affect you emotionally but you can't always put your finger on what it is that is doing that to you. Perhaps an academic could tell you what is being done that touches you, but I sometimes feel about analyzing poetry like whoever it was that said analyzing comedy is like dissecting a frog: 'no one is interested, and the frog dies.'
The final section, 'Pitysad', was for me the strongest and best. A series of poems built around the stories of the Odyessy, but framed for a more modern setting - it could be Syria or the former Yugoslavia as much as ancient Greece. There's a real power to this section. Penelope's experience is uglier, the impact of war less heroic, and the maleness of things exposed. Homer's stories are of a particular time, but war is timeless. How one frames these stories matters. No one suggests not reading Homer, but neither should he - if there was an individual called Homer - be left to be the final word.
Overall I found this a fascinating collection. It isn't always easy, but it is worth reading.
Like a lot of the poetry I have read this isn't an easy read.
The first section, in particular, 'Welfare Handbook' I found hard to get my head around, until almost the end and then I re-read it all with a little more understanding. This isn't a complaint by the way. I don't think everything should be easy. There's a place in everyone's reading life for the simple and the difficult; the clear and the opaque. 'Welfare Handbook' is about Eric Gill, the sculptor and letter cutter who also sexually abused both of his daughters.
The second section 'Headland', I found easier to understand and loved the language. 'Pigment' I really liked. There was something about that poem that got really under the skin, even if I can't entirely explain why. It is the way a tune or a piece of abstract art can affect you emotionally but you can't always put your finger on what it is that is doing that to you. Perhaps an academic could tell you what is being done that touches you, but I sometimes feel about analyzing poetry like whoever it was that said analyzing comedy is like dissecting a frog: 'no one is interested, and the frog dies.'
The final section, 'Pitysad', was for me the strongest and best. A series of poems built around the stories of the Odyessy, but framed for a more modern setting - it could be Syria or the former Yugoslavia as much as ancient Greece. There's a real power to this section. Penelope's experience is uglier, the impact of war less heroic, and the maleness of things exposed. Homer's stories are of a particular time, but war is timeless. How one frames these stories matters. No one suggests not reading Homer, but neither should he - if there was an individual called Homer - be left to be the final word.
Overall I found this a fascinating collection. It isn't always easy, but it is worth reading.
the_literarylinguist's review
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault
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