A review by suganyamohankumar
Speculate: A Collection of Microlit by Eugen Bacon, Dominique Hecq

challenging emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.0

 

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I haven’t read many books with prose poetry. It was an illuminating and exhilarating experience.  It was as if I had to use every cell in my body in order to understand what was being written in these short one-page prose. This book is art. It takes time and effort to understand. 

 The book, itself is not that long, but it took me quite some time to read it. I had to pause, and at times, re-read the passage in order to absorb it. 

Rating: 3/5 Stars 

 

Plot: 

As this is a collection of prose poetry, there was not plot. Each one of these segments was unique and sharp. One author would write a prose poem and the other would respond.  It was interesting to see how the authors reacted to each other’s writing. It was like reading bits of conversations but without a context to them.

Writing Style: 

This book was written using prose poetry. I have to admit I didn’t know what exactly that was.  I had to do a little bit of research, here’s what I learned: 

1.       A prose poem is basically a poem written as a sentence. Therefore, is a block of text without line breaks. 

2.       It is able to maintain the power of poetry to be lyrical but look like prose. 

This book was quite difficult for me to get it to. Each prose poem was short and distinct. I don’t read much poetry, and usually I read long form literature, which is why I think this was a little difficult. But once I understood what was happening, I was able to get into a rhythm of reading them. 

I had so many lines that resonated with me, on a deep level. 

Here are two: 

1.       Lies we tell until we hear gods laughing so hard the universe splits its sides and music falls from the stars. 

2.       We learn the taste of blood and tears in the womb. 

 

Final Thoughts: 

Overall, I had difficulty reading this book. But I think that was the purpose of this book. It was to make the reader think about the physical world around them as well the philosophical one.  I was not able to connect the words as a whole, but I was able to enjoy the vivid imagery that was present. 

I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to try prose poetry and expand their reading. 

Rating: 3/5 Stars 

*Disclaimer: This is not sponsored blog post. Thank you, Meerkat Press for sending an electronic copy of book. 

*The opinions expressed in this post are my own. 

*Spoiler-free Review