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kshgr's review against another edition
4.0
nice, snappy and sharp, let down with a couple 'boomer' moments, particularly the clinton worship....
culpeppper's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
3.75
It took me a while to understand Myles's flow, use of abbreviations, and line breaks but some poems really impacted me once I dug in. There are many humorous elements that balance the darker themes, and so much love that pours from the lines which soothes the stinging phrases. The poems offer both cohesive narrative-focused prose alongside choppy, short poems that often follow longer poems, almost as palate cleansers.
Some poems, however, really were too challenging for me to understand, or I had trouble figuring out what some of the motifs/references were trying to do. The short lines and cut up words, seemingly disconnected thoughts or ideas jammed up next to each other, sometimes confused me more than made me think.
I'd reccommend this to people who are specifically seeking out challenging and innovative poetry. There's some really great ideas I took away from this, but sometimes I was just lost.
Some poems, however, really were too challenging for me to understand, or I had trouble figuring out what some of the motifs/references were trying to do. The short lines and cut up words, seemingly disconnected thoughts or ideas jammed up next to each other, sometimes confused me more than made me think.
I'd reccommend this to people who are specifically seeking out challenging and innovative poetry. There's some really great ideas I took away from this, but sometimes I was just lost.
Content Warnings
Minor: Addiction, Cursing, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Excrement, Death of parent, Alcohol, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
kierli's review against another edition
Form is fine but didn't connect with the content.
njdarkish's review against another edition
2.0
Much of the poetry felt like free stream-of-consciousness ramblings rather than anything crafted or worthwhile to me. Wasn't my style of poetry, not for me.
g00finn's review against another edition
5.0
they are absolutely genius. i want to think like them. write like them.
jesshooves's review against another edition
“My poems are so much / like the city they / couldn’t publish them / on the train.”
nearfutures's review against another edition
This is my first Myles book and it's very different from a lot of poetry that I've been reading. It read as very casual and stream-of-conscience in a way that I have an intuitive resistance to, but the sort of peripatetic quality of the poems is I think in fact very intentional and quite effective for a good chunk of the book. I wish there had been a little more variance in form (a lot of very short lines, enjambment as nearly the only syntax) but that's a personal quibble and not a flaw with the book. A lot to think about!