kaas's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide and Miscarriage
uglyclogs's review against another edition
4.0
This book reinvents the sensation of finding poetry for the first time and does so while simultaneously allowing veteran poetry fanatics to indulge in the craft that brings them whatever it is that they need. The memoir aspects of this book alongside the poetry analysis' provided show a stark contrast to how we live vs. perceive our living while it unfolds in the moment. I felt many an emotion while reading this book as poetry and memoirs tend to invoke. I end it though with a sustained solitude, there will always be the written word even when it seems we have nothing else.
bridgidcassin's review against another edition
1.0
A disappointment, at best.
True, this book suffers from comparison, and I’ve just come off reading a lot of other (better) poetry texts. It skews more closely to memoir than poetry, but it does include a lot of good examples and classics in the text.
The problem is that these poems are framed by short memoir pieces and some cursory analysis that is at times clumsy or at worst (depending on your judgement) plagiarized. The review in The Tourniquet Review explicates these passages more clearly, so I won’t revisit them here, but even if that didn’t bother me, I found some really sloppy copywriting in the text, such as at the link below. This really took me by surprise in a book by someone with so many credentials.
https://imgur.com/a/wDSg7
There are some really beautiful parts, but I could not recommend this book even in part.
True, this book suffers from comparison, and I’ve just come off reading a lot of other (better) poetry texts. It skews more closely to memoir than poetry, but it does include a lot of good examples and classics in the text.
The problem is that these poems are framed by short memoir pieces and some cursory analysis that is at times clumsy or at worst (depending on your judgement) plagiarized. The review in The Tourniquet Review explicates these passages more clearly, so I won’t revisit them here, but even if that didn’t bother me, I found some really sloppy copywriting in the text, such as at the link below. This really took me by surprise in a book by someone with so many credentials.
https://imgur.com/a/wDSg7
There are some really beautiful parts, but I could not recommend this book even in part.
mckenzierichardson's review against another edition
1.0
For more reviews, check out my blog: Craft-Cycle
A disappointing read from a book with such a catchy title and lovely cover. Loved the idea but the execution did not work for me.
For me, this book tries to do too much. It is part memoir, part poetry anthology, and part poetry analysis with some facts and quotes from other poets thrown in. The organization is choppy and did not flow naturally. The timeline itself felt muddled.
Each chapter follows the same format. Bialosky recounts difficult times in her life. She connects (often shallowly) these events with poems she likes. She then provides an elementary analysis of the poem (often little more than a summary). She also includes information about the quoted poet's life, which detracts the focus from own life story. The analyses themselves are often only how the poem connects with Bialosky herself, not necessarily what it actually means or the poet's true intent. The analysis often lacks deep meaning, giving a very surface-level look at each poem. This makes it difficult to assess the target audience.
The delicate balance between Bialosky's life and the story of poetry was unsteady. It is entirely reasonable for a memoir to focus on its author, but in this case, doing so diluted the poems included by only recognizing what was relevant to Bialosky herself. She uses her own personal allusions that do not transfer to the reader or even the original poet.
This is most clear in sections such as Shame, where Bialosky connects the meaning-soaked words of Langston Hughes with a childhood story about taking a bus ride through "the rundown sections of Cleveland known as the ghetto" where she witnesses "black children dressed in thin, torn coats, with no stockings... playing on a porch" (p. 27). This chapter in particular was especially clunky as she distorts Hughes' words about racial inequality and power, and puts herself at the center the story.
This book was not for me. The stories were not told in an interesting or insightful way. The shinning light was the poetry itself. While there were many overcited pieces like "The Road Not Taken", there were other gems within its pages. I've added a few more collections to my TBR list from this book. However, the poetry analysis was disappointingly simplistic. Bialosky clumsily handles others' words and rips the meaning from them. Her text pulls heavily from other sources, often relying on large quotations that are hardly relevant to the topic.
The book seemed indecisive about whether to tell Bialosky's story or share poetry. Poetry is so personal and subjective. Forcing other's words to find your own meaning and sharing the process came off as indulgent and unhelpful. Poetry can indeed save your life but we all have to find our own personal meaning within it.
A disappointing read from a book with such a catchy title and lovely cover. Loved the idea but the execution did not work for me.
For me, this book tries to do too much. It is part memoir, part poetry anthology, and part poetry analysis with some facts and quotes from other poets thrown in. The organization is choppy and did not flow naturally. The timeline itself felt muddled.
Each chapter follows the same format. Bialosky recounts difficult times in her life. She connects (often shallowly) these events with poems she likes. She then provides an elementary analysis of the poem (often little more than a summary). She also includes information about the quoted poet's life, which detracts the focus from own life story. The analyses themselves are often only how the poem connects with Bialosky herself, not necessarily what it actually means or the poet's true intent. The analysis often lacks deep meaning, giving a very surface-level look at each poem. This makes it difficult to assess the target audience.
The delicate balance between Bialosky's life and the story of poetry was unsteady. It is entirely reasonable for a memoir to focus on its author, but in this case, doing so diluted the poems included by only recognizing what was relevant to Bialosky herself. She uses her own personal allusions that do not transfer to the reader or even the original poet.
This is most clear in sections such as Shame, where Bialosky connects the meaning-soaked words of Langston Hughes with a childhood story about taking a bus ride through "the rundown sections of Cleveland known as the ghetto" where she witnesses "black children dressed in thin, torn coats, with no stockings... playing on a porch" (p. 27). This chapter in particular was especially clunky as she distorts Hughes' words about racial inequality and power, and puts herself at the center the story.
This book was not for me. The stories were not told in an interesting or insightful way. The shinning light was the poetry itself. While there were many overcited pieces like "The Road Not Taken", there were other gems within its pages. I've added a few more collections to my TBR list from this book. However, the poetry analysis was disappointingly simplistic. Bialosky clumsily handles others' words and rips the meaning from them. Her text pulls heavily from other sources, often relying on large quotations that are hardly relevant to the topic.
The book seemed indecisive about whether to tell Bialosky's story or share poetry. Poetry is so personal and subjective. Forcing other's words to find your own meaning and sharing the process came off as indulgent and unhelpful. Poetry can indeed save your life but we all have to find our own personal meaning within it.
quidamtyro's review against another edition
3.0
"{The poems} don't often amount to much, but when they do I sense something alive and crackling, like the sound of stepping on twigs in the woods"
readchelsearead's review against another edition
3.0
This was a pleasant little read. I really enjoyed the formatting - anecdote, poem, analysis of poem, circle back to how it relates to the anecdote. I’m not a huge poetry buff, but this was enjoyable and the short chapters made it a quick read.
caillem's review against another edition
1.0
While I thought that the concept of the book, i.e. linking poetry to different parts in the authors life, and using it as a tool for the memoir, was interesting, I had a hard time getting through the book. I found that the order of the chapters made little sense, the book would go from a story about childhood to one about adult hood, and back to childhood, without any link between the stories to explain the ordering. The concept is very interesting, and could make a great book, however, in this particular case it fell flat for me.
sophierayton's review against another edition
3.0
I liked the combination of poetry and her thoughts on them and how they added to her life.
balletbookworm's review
4.0
A very surprising blend of memoir and literary analysis. Bialosky illustrates the story of her life - her father’s death when she was small, growing up with her mother (trying desperately to remarry) and sisters, becoming a working woman in the 80s, marriage, losing a sister and first two children - with the poems that found her over the course of her life. She provides some basic analysis or interpretation of each poem so even those new to reading poetry don’t have to worry. A lovely book about the power and love of words.
debnanceatreaderbuzz's review
4.0
Poetry resonates with Jill through all the difficult times of her life, including the death of her father and loss of her babies.
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