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icaruskilledthesun's review
4.0
“Te he amado en vez de a otras personas,
amado para no amar a nadie más,
cada uno de los sesgos de tu cuerpo
en construcción de dios, como yo te construí a ti en mi interior,
un mundo sellado. ¿Y si de tus labios
hubiera aprendido el amor de otros labios (…)?”
amado para no amar a nadie más,
cada uno de los sesgos de tu cuerpo
en construcción de dios, como yo te construí a ti en mi interior,
un mundo sellado. ¿Y si de tus labios
hubiera aprendido el amor de otros labios (…)?”
dukegregory's review against another edition
3.0
Feels too reliant on the confessional mode at times, but Olds always has a way in the end.
askatknits's review against another edition
5.0
I think writing poetry is hard (if not impossible for most of us) but writing good poetry about hard topics is just amazing. This collection of poems made me stop and think. At times it made me uncomfortable. But the way Olds puts together phrases and uses words to paint an image in the readers mind are brilliant. I highly recommend!
e_reader77's review against another edition
4.0
Best poems: "Nevsky Prospekt", "The Guild", "Miscarriage", "Best Friends", "Burn Center", "Late Speech with my Brother", "Exclusive", "Eggs", "For My Daughter", "Pre-Adolescent Spring", "Pajamas", "The Sign of Saturn", "35/10"
htoo's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
3.75
Let’s start with the good shall we: the writing was clear and concise, Olds handles her themes well to a certain extent (more on that later), and her best poems are the ones that deals with her family dynamics during her childhood. With that being said, some of the poems did not age well (at all).
The bad:
1. We as a society need to let Marilyn Monroe rest in peace.
2. I get what Olds was trying to do with the first section titled “Public” but I feel like it’s not her place to speak on those issues. I rather read poems written by people (or their descendants) who survived the atrocities she mentioned.
3. Not her comparing her father to the Shah in “The Departure.” I’m not making any excuses for the Shah but that comparison was a poor attempt at Orientalism. It’s very much giving “I have an abusive dad, let me compare him to a despot from the East to drive the message home.” For more on why this is problematic, read Orientalism by Edward Said.
4. “Hitler entered Paris the way my/sister entered my room at night”
WTF? She really thought she ate. I’m tired of writer using Hitler and the Holocaust (cough Slyvia Plath cough) as a poor metaphor for the shitty family members in their lives. This was not warranted, the poem could be written in a different way and still give off the same effects.
5. “Our son is asleep on the back seat,/his wiry limbs limp and supple/except where his hard-on lifts his pajamas like the/earth above the shoot of a bulb”
I don't know who’s worse Sharon Olds or Colleen Hoover. It feels illegal to read the things she wrote about her kids.
The bad:
1. We as a society need to let Marilyn Monroe rest in peace.
2. I get what Olds was trying to do with the first section titled “Public” but I feel like it’s not her place to speak on those issues. I rather read poems written by people (or their descendants) who survived the atrocities she mentioned.
3. Not her comparing her father to the Shah in “The Departure.” I’m not making any excuses for the Shah but that comparison was a poor attempt at Orientalism. It’s very much giving “I have an abusive dad, let me compare him to a despot from the East to drive the message home.” For more on why this is problematic, read Orientalism by Edward Said.
4. “Hitler entered Paris the way my/sister entered my room at night”
WTF? She really thought she ate. I’m tired of writer using Hitler and the Holocaust (cough Slyvia Plath cough) as a poor metaphor for the shitty family members in their lives. This was not warranted, the poem could be written in a different way and still give off the same effects.
5. “Our son is asleep on the back seat,/his wiry limbs limp and supple/except where his hard-on lifts his pajamas like the/earth above the shoot of a bulb”
I don't know who’s worse Sharon Olds or Colleen Hoover. It feels illegal to read the things she wrote about her kids.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content