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A review by laurelinwonder
Portrait of the Alcoholic by Kaveh Akbar
5.0
When the poetry is really good, I read it aloud, so I can taste the language. I read this collection aloud for my baby, for my cat, for my husband, for anyone who could hear the cadence of my voice.
Each portrait is an epistle, Akbar’s portraiture reflects the shared history of the addresser and addressee, “the drinker and the drink.”
This book is also about the poet’s relationship to language. In “Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Inpatient),” the speaker attempts to control his cravings by naming them, as if the signifier would protect him from the signified. “I’ve given this coldness many names,” Akbar writes, “thinking if I called a wolf a wolf I might dull its fangs.”
This is a killer collection, read it now.
Each portrait is an epistle, Akbar’s portraiture reflects the shared history of the addresser and addressee, “the drinker and the drink.”
This book is also about the poet’s relationship to language. In “Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Inpatient),” the speaker attempts to control his cravings by naming them, as if the signifier would protect him from the signified. “I’ve given this coldness many names,” Akbar writes, “thinking if I called a wolf a wolf I might dull its fangs.”
This is a killer collection, read it now.