foggy_rosamund's review
4.0
This is an intense, inventive collection about troubled relationships with food. In a world where food is fetishized and viewed for its aesthetic appeal rather than its nutritional value, how can we have a comfortable relationship with it? Jenna Clake looks at the ways eating disorders damage our relationship with food, and are part of a wider cultural problem with dieting and with attributing moral goodness to particular kinds of food. Told in dramatic monologues from various different voices, Museum of Ice Cream feel claustrophobic as it looks at women's bodies and how they are shaped by pop culture. The voices in these poems trap us and surprise us, making us feel wrong-footed and uncomfortable. The collection is constantly surprising and engaging, and creates a very exact, very true feeling of what it's like to be a woman constantly scrutinized by social media and pop culture. It's witty, tightly-controlled and pushes the boundaries of what poetry can do. Jenna Clake is a writer to watch.
lokster71's review
2.0
I have found that with poetry I occasionally come across a collection or a poet who I struggle with. Not because I think they are bad, but because I can't get my head around them. I'm thinking of Pasternak here as a classic example. And now I need to add Jenna Clake's 'Museum of Ice Cream'.
I tend to think this failure to connect is my problem, not the poets. I am a bear of very little brain.
I found myself missing both meaning and connection. Sometimes with a poet, I don't get there are still poems or even lines that really smack me about the head but I found few of these with 'Museum of Ice Cream'. I felt that perhaps Clake was trying a little too hard. But again, this is more my problem than the poets.
It's not bad btw. It just wasn't my cup of tea.
I tend to think this failure to connect is my problem, not the poets. I am a bear of very little brain.
I found myself missing both meaning and connection. Sometimes with a poet, I don't get there are still poems or even lines that really smack me about the head but I found few of these with 'Museum of Ice Cream'. I felt that perhaps Clake was trying a little too hard. But again, this is more my problem than the poets.
It's not bad btw. It just wasn't my cup of tea.
sleepssundays's review
5.0
Personal bias: Jenna is a dear friend and gave me a copy. But, also, these visceral, sensuous poems about bodies and food and relationships and the horror and joy of all those things pinned me to my chair in such a way that I ended up racing the sunset to try to read them all without having to get up to turn a light on because I couldn't stand to put the book down for even a second.
venetiana's review
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Mental illness
Minor: Stalking and Vomit
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