imscared3222's review
4.0
I have read a LOT of books this semester; some books were eh and some kind of sucked, but Trethewey's collection on EJ Bellocq's photographs is AMAZING! This is a book I will not sell back to the University bookstore.
haholmes's review
5.0
The poetic story telling based on photography was an intriguing approach that was accomplished beautifully. Trethewey's poetry portrayed a range of meanings that address art, literature, race, and gender.
velcrofrills's review
5.0
Fascinating to read a collection like this where all the poems are individual expressions of the same character/world. It makes it hard to single out any of the individual pieces as standouts, since they're all narratively connected to each other. That said, each poem really is a standout, they're all so formally complex and (they at least feel) effortless. Can't recommend this collection enough.
nwilso30's review
5.0
I’d been staring at the cover of Bellocq’s Ophelia for quite some time (without investigating a single thing about the author or the woman on the cover) before reading it. With anything, I always look at the author to get an understanding of the identities and possible lenses that might be offered by the writer. After briefly googling Trethewey, I found myself really shocked and unsettled by the first couple of pages of Bellocq’s Ophelia where I discovered the history of the photograph, Bellocq, and my image of the white woman on the cover shifted quickly and incredibly. Whilst reading it I kept thinking about the movie Watermelon Woman. After seeing it for the first time, I was disappointed to learn at the end that the subject of the movie, the “watermelon woman,” was not a real historical figure. In some ways I am used to Black writers reimagining history instead of highlighting what has already happened. I don’t want to believe that I am becoming desensitized from the insidiousness of whiteness and racism because I do not think this is it. I am consuming a lot of violent history and analyses for classes. But I do not think I can hold any room for surprise. I am no longer surprised by heinous words and disgusting racism. There’s a portion of the book of poetry where a white character visiting New Orleans says that they can smell a n*gger (Trethewey 26). No amount of passing, or bleach, or washing can change a niggatry disposition (or so it seems). In high school, when reading the Bluest Eye and various August Wilson plays, our white teacher said that he would say n*gger when reading the novels because it was a product of the time and book and okay to say when “performing.” I was not surprised then. We see how whiteness is a performance, and how it must make the rest of us act and perform. Ophelia is delicately dancing between perceptions and veiling, and I think it’s difficult to be a Black person, not because we do not know who we are, but because whiteness causes us to fake, shift, and perform.
reggikko's review against another edition
4.0
In this collection of ekphrastic poems, Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner Natasha Trethewey imagines the inner life of a Storyville prostitute and photographic subject of E.J. Bellocq. If you haven't seen Bellocq's Storyville photographs, I highly recommend you do. Trethewey's poetry cannot be separated from her inspiration.
The poems, presented as a series of letters home, are hauntingly beautiful and sorrowful. "Ophelia" comes to life via Trethewey's pen and the poet's portrait of her subject rings true on every page.
The poems, presented as a series of letters home, are hauntingly beautiful and sorrowful. "Ophelia" comes to life via Trethewey's pen and the poet's portrait of her subject rings true on every page.