katrinky's review
4.0
These poems are much darker than her more contemporary work. They deal with incest, divorce, raising a burgeoning teenager, mental institutions, and more explicit sex. This is her first book of poems, and feels like it. She pays attention to fingers: "a long finger sliding into the slitted denim the way that man slipped his thumb into me one summer," hair, often golden and "chopped," her parents, her father abusive, her mother a nurse that tells ER stories while her children eat their meat, the bridge in her hometown where she imagines "what my eyes first opened and closed on/in this foreign light."
I'm fairly certain I'll follow Dorianne Laux wherever she takes me.
I'm fairly certain I'll follow Dorianne Laux wherever she takes me.
thegayngelgabriel's review
4.0
What an excellent and precise storyteller Dorianne Laux is. An infuriatingly good first collection. Particular favorites: "What My Father Told Me," "Quarter to Six," "On the Back Porch," "The Laundromat," "The Garden."
kathrynth's review
3.0
I feel like this collection deserves more stars than I gave it, because in some ways I'm punishing the book for being poetry, which I'm still trying to find more appreciation for. Still—and this may or may not be a poetry thing (if there is such a thing)—but I dislike explicitly sexual description, in any form. I guess what it comes down to, to me, is not ever feeling like I see it done in a new way, in a way that I wouldn't see in a bad erotica novel. I'm definitely not saying this is a bad piece of erotica, just that the way my taste runs, I have a hard time seeing how the language works differently. I know lots of my poet friends are probably shaking their heads and/or rolling their eyes at this point, but I am trying.
All in all, I much preferred the first two sections to the third. There was some lovely imagery, and ideas I could wrap my head around, but that were still surprising and new.
All in all, I much preferred the first two sections to the third. There was some lovely imagery, and ideas I could wrap my head around, but that were still surprising and new.
janedallaway's review against another edition
5.0
I discovered Dorianne Laux through one of the “Ten poems to...” books. I liked the very matter of fact language and style of that example of her work. And I’ve enjoyed that in this book as well. I like how, in some of her poems, she takes me on a journey, and often doesn’t end where the start makes me think it will.
Poems I marked are:
- Two pictures of my sister
- The tooth fairy
- Bird
- Adam’s Dad teaches the kids to play ball
Poems I marked are:
- Two pictures of my sister
- The tooth fairy
- Bird
- Adam’s Dad teaches the kids to play ball
More...