ale_ja's review
5.0
prob my fav jamie berrout book i’ve read yet, every poem was a standout who knew that was possible
shuly's review
5.0
Even without cutting into the fruit, in bed you smell of guava and, having stood so near you today, in bed I also smell of guava. Even the hall that separates us smells perfectly of that same curious, sugary flesh. I want you like the first bite of guava. I want you like every other bite of guava to come.
"The Scent of Guava"
Berrout's language balances delicateness without sacrificing its intensity. Sometimes in the space of a poem what starts out as carefully constructed image will quickly crescendo into these enormous emotions and she covers a lot of ground in this anthology, she raises many questions and responds with complex answers. What does desire mean to someone who is socially marked as undesirable? What does it mean to feel desire as someone whose existence is on the margins? How do you feel love when you're still trying to just survive? Sometimes a work grappling with such large questions can get lost in the melancholy but I feel like Berrout harnesses these emotions but still allows enough space in the work to for range of experience and intensity and I'm so thankful to have read these poems. Some of them speak to me personally as a trans woman but I also appreciate that her work avoids generalizing experiences to the point where they're meaningless.
I am so excited to read a new work by her and I can't wait to see what comes next.
"The Scent of Guava"
Berrout's language balances delicateness without sacrificing its intensity. Sometimes in the space of a poem what starts out as carefully constructed image will quickly crescendo into these enormous emotions and she covers a lot of ground in this anthology, she raises many questions and responds with complex answers. What does desire mean to someone who is socially marked as undesirable? What does it mean to feel desire as someone whose existence is on the margins? How do you feel love when you're still trying to just survive? Sometimes a work grappling with such large questions can get lost in the melancholy but I feel like Berrout harnesses these emotions but still allows enough space in the work to for range of experience and intensity and I'm so thankful to have read these poems. Some of them speak to me personally as a trans woman but I also appreciate that her work avoids generalizing experiences to the point where they're meaningless.
I am so excited to read a new work by her and I can't wait to see what comes next.
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