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A review by libreroaming
The Language of Stars by Louise Hawes
3.0
More of a 3.5 really. "The Language of Stars" has a great premise based loosely on a real event when a bunch of teenagers were arrested for vandalizing Robert Frost's home and were sentenced to classes about his poetry as part of their punishment. Hawes reimagines it with a living poet, Rufus Baylor, who decides to teach the delinquents himself.
The good part was you can feel the love of poetry in every chapter. And the poetry of a "world famous poet" sounds professional so it isn't clunky when it's praised for its beauty. Although one con is there is way too much "our poet" and "greatest poet" embelishment that it gets too repetitive to maintain that allure and turns into saintly haigography. However the rest of the surrounding cast, from the social class starved mother to the self-absorbed boyfriend, were given complicated characterization that helped the interpersonal scenes.
But for all the pausing for moments of beauty and insight, the story dragged and retrode its lines. There were also moments of stylized script prose, written with sound effects that just didn't work well for characters or narration.
If you like slow meandering stories that focus on poetry and introspection this novel will speak your language.
The good part was you can feel the love of poetry in every chapter. And the poetry of a "world famous poet" sounds professional so it isn't clunky when it's praised for its beauty. Although one con is there is way too much "our poet" and "greatest poet" embelishment that it gets too repetitive to maintain that allure and turns into saintly haigography. However the rest of the surrounding cast, from the social class starved mother to the self-absorbed boyfriend, were given complicated characterization that helped the interpersonal scenes.
But for all the pausing for moments of beauty and insight, the story dragged and retrode its lines. There were also moments of stylized script prose, written with sound effects that just didn't work well for characters or narration.
If you like slow meandering stories that focus on poetry and introspection this novel will speak your language.