theroguerecommender's review
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
In Alien Miss, Carolina Duan explores what it means to be read as “alien,” weaving together Chinese American history, her relationships with her family members, and her own upbringing in the Midwest. Duan has a beautiful lyricism to her writing, and she ties together the entire collection with specific phrases and through lines (though each poem can be read on its own as well). Alien Miss is packed with moments of joy, moments of resistance, and quiet images of intimacy.
While I loved the entire book, there were a few standout pieces for me, including:
-The Alien Miss sequence, which includes six poems and puts the anonymous Alien Miss character in conversation with historical documents and the author herself.
-Do You Have a Grammatically Correct Response to the Question?
-On Mackinac Island, I Cast a Spell
Overall, I highly recommend this book! While some of the poems are more experimental in form, I think Duan’s hauntingly beautiful writing will work for folks who read poetry and those looking to dabble and wanting a strong collection to start with.
While I loved the entire book, there were a few standout pieces for me, including:
-The Alien Miss sequence, which includes six poems and puts the anonymous Alien Miss character in conversation with historical documents and the author herself.
-Do You Have a Grammatically Correct Response to the Question?
-On Mackinac Island, I Cast a Spell
Overall, I highly recommend this book! While some of the poems are more experimental in form, I think Duan’s hauntingly beautiful writing will work for folks who read poetry and those looking to dabble and wanting a strong collection to start with.
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