Reviews

Poetics of Work by Sophie Lewis, Noémi Lefebvre

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ifonlyihadcake's review against another edition

3.0

As someone who doesn’t know much about poetry or art, this book feels like walking into a high-brow modern art exhibit: clearly, there are some important things being communicated and I am able to glean a few specific ideas, but for the most part I’m lost. I do think it was good, though I’m not entirely sure why I believe that.

As for concrete takeaways/good quotes, I’ll just put one for myself for later review: “usefulness limits the imagination”.

jemini's review against another edition

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3.0

Poetics of Work by Noemi Lefebvre: 3/5

Not really sure what to rate this as I think a lot of it flew over my head. It’s a short novel of 107 pages that runs us through a nameless, gender-less narrator trying to find a job and find poetry in France under a state of emergency. The writing is very jumpy and not linear at all which made it hard to keep track of but I actually really liked the concept. It gave it a lot of character. Will definitely have to reread this one in the future in order to grasp different meanings.

dessa's review against another edition

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4.0

I picked up POETICS OF WORK by Noémi Lefebvre (translated by Sophie Lewis) because someone on my bookstagram read it and didn’t like it. But it sounded so weird and good! Results: definitely weird, maybe good, but somehow a book I want to teach a class about. The syntax is roundabout and run-on, poetic and labyrinthine, and sometimes uncomfortably at peace with its own terror and confusion. Our narrator is haunted by the ghost — or maybe consciousness? — of her father, a half-philosophic blowhard know it all who cites Plato and drinks unending beer. Our protagonist needs work (of which dad disapproves, at least I think) but she is reluctant to work, or maybe put off by work. And who wouldn’t be? Between her own half-crazed calculations and her father’s half-ghostly warnings, all work and all labour seem to be, to her, in service of the state — which seems to be, to both of them, increasingly in service of fascist tendencies. She looks for work, she rejects work, she walks and smokes and joins revolutionaries in the streets, she goes in circles and circles and circles. I found myself in this book in a weird way, especially as someone about to go on the job market but who would much rather make books, even as my belief in the ability of book-making or -reading to resist fascism is beginning to wane. I liked it; I didn’t; but ultimately it’s the kind of book that doesn’t care if you like it or not.

grubnubble's review against another edition

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4.0

A poem that feels like a memoir, but is a novel.

cais's review against another edition

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4.0

I have to agree with all the reviews that call this book a "manifesto of poetic resistance" and like phrases. Lefebrve finds the poetry in quotidian activities and in the feeling of not being a so-called productive member of society. No plot, as such, and the shiftlessness of the narration requires the reader to just let Lefebrve's graceful, clever writing carry you through. Political without telling the reader what to think and philosophical without being abstruse. A quick, challenging, enjoyable read.

getglitchd's review against another edition

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challenging funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

While a beautiful manifesto on poetry, fascism, language, and poor paternal relationships, I struggled to get through this book despite it's short length. There is little to no plot to be found here, which isn't necessarily a mark against the book, but it didn't pull me in the way I'd have liked it to.