laurenmichelli's review against another edition
2.0
Some strong, gripping moments but overall felt inaccessible and cryptic
wesleywesley's review against another edition
1.0
...seriously?
The book I finished before this one, And The Mountains Echoed was more poetic as a novel than this was. This was one of those books that I felt like you had to actively search for meaning or force yourself to be swept away because for every sensible or meaningful sentence, there were ten pages of nonsense. Whereas Mountains just was poetic, Bough Down was so forced and obvious in its intentions to be deep, cryptic, and alternative.
Having finished the book, I still don't know what it was about. It was far too abstract. It must've been therapeutic to write, vomiting whatever nouns, verbs, adjectives, articles, adverbs, etc. come to mind, but it was meaningless to read.
The visuals were irrelevant. Collages of dirt and scraps of paper that the author must've found in the cracks of her couch. Neither appealing nor compelling. I looked at them and just thought, What was the point?
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. If one were to stumble upon it and enjoy it, that's great for them. But for me, there wasn't a single thing I enjoyed, so I wouldn't waste anyone's time thinking they might be lucky to find something worthwhile in this drivel.
The book I finished before this one, And The Mountains Echoed was more poetic as a novel than this was. This was one of those books that I felt like you had to actively search for meaning or force yourself to be swept away because for every sensible or meaningful sentence, there were ten pages of nonsense. Whereas Mountains just was poetic, Bough Down was so forced and obvious in its intentions to be deep, cryptic, and alternative.
Having finished the book, I still don't know what it was about. It was far too abstract. It must've been therapeutic to write, vomiting whatever nouns, verbs, adjectives, articles, adverbs, etc. come to mind, but it was meaningless to read.
The visuals were irrelevant. Collages of dirt and scraps of paper that the author must've found in the cracks of her couch. Neither appealing nor compelling. I looked at them and just thought, What was the point?
I wouldn't recommend this to anyone. If one were to stumble upon it and enjoy it, that's great for them. But for me, there wasn't a single thing I enjoyed, so I wouldn't waste anyone's time thinking they might be lucky to find something worthwhile in this drivel.
scarecrowskeith's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Death
mugren's review against another edition
4.0
Karen Green is David Foster Wallace's widow. Bough Down is a sort of memoir about the time leading up to his death and the days after his death. Beautiful and poetic.
kylefwill's review against another edition
5.0
"The doctor says this is non-linear, inelegant progress."
frasersimons's review against another edition
5.0
A singular experience. Prose, art, poetry come together in a way that is elusive until it becomes a self fulfilling prophesy surrounding the heart of grief. I took quite a few pictures of some of the most beautiful prose I’ve read followed by opaque art; something I’ve always found hard to intercept. And even as I got to the ending, and I wondered what ending could be appropriate, it offers not even a subjective conclusion. Also thematically appropriate, I thought.
levitybooks's review against another edition
5.0
My #1 (favourite) read of 2020.
Video Review
Karen Green's Frail Sister is my favourite poem of all time. And I see, only now, that its poetic structure was first devised in Bough Down, an elegiac response to David Foster Wallace's death.
The way we talk about death has changed a lot in the last decade. The generation before me find it taboo to discuss causes of death. This is especially true of suicide. I am one of very few people in the world studying suicide, and I suspect this is largely due to its legalization in Canada. It remains illegal in some forms in many parts of the world and that makes it especially hard to talk about. That also makes it hard to understand. The problem then is that it is hard to know how to grieve someone who dies by suicide.
This is why I think Bough Down is beyond being a spectacular poem. It is a uniquely real and close journey through a peculiar occurrence of grief — both in its discovery and its particular subject. Sure, it's undeniable that it serves as an excellent poem in and of itself—were it fictional—with it's surrealist construction and a style rolling with human longing, wit, humour, hope and chaos. But its honesty, humble and raw expression is what set it apart. It takes guts and love to write like this.
Karen Green's Bough Down rivals and contrasts greatly with Anne Carson's Nox. Both are turning the book as an object into a very personal form, a diary you feel you should not have been able to access. And only when this is done can we get close enough to appropriately convey to the closest conscious feelings we could ever write.
-
Original Review:
Review coming soon for this fantastically f***ing sad, elegiac masterpiece. I need to gather myself.
Video Review
Karen Green's Frail Sister is my favourite poem of all time. And I see, only now, that its poetic structure was first devised in Bough Down, an elegiac response to David Foster Wallace's death.
The way we talk about death has changed a lot in the last decade. The generation before me find it taboo to discuss causes of death. This is especially true of suicide. I am one of very few people in the world studying suicide, and I suspect this is largely due to its legalization in Canada. It remains illegal in some forms in many parts of the world and that makes it especially hard to talk about. That also makes it hard to understand. The problem then is that it is hard to know how to grieve someone who dies by suicide.
This is why I think Bough Down is beyond being a spectacular poem. It is a uniquely real and close journey through a peculiar occurrence of grief — both in its discovery and its particular subject. Sure, it's undeniable that it serves as an excellent poem in and of itself—were it fictional—with it's surrealist construction and a style rolling with human longing, wit, humour, hope and chaos. But its honesty, humble and raw expression is what set it apart. It takes guts and love to write like this.
Karen Green's Bough Down rivals and contrasts greatly with Anne Carson's Nox. Both are turning the book as an object into a very personal form, a diary you feel you should not have been able to access. And only when this is done can we get close enough to appropriately convey to the closest conscious feelings we could ever write.
-
Original Review:
Review coming soon for this fantastically f***ing sad, elegiac masterpiece. I need to gather myself.