A review by octavia_cade
The Place of Broken Things by Alessandro Manzetti, Linda D. Addison

3.0

It's always interesting when reading a book with two authors - I'm continually trying to see where the style of one meets the other. That's something which is somewhat easier here, as some of the poems are by Addison, and some are by Manzetti, and some are by both of them together. As a whole, the collection is heavily influenced by other artists - composers and painters and writers - so there's that stylistic layer as well, especially considering that some of the poems are inspired by other works, or are responses to them. An example would be one of my favourites, "When You Forget Me," by Addison, which a little note says was inspired by Neruda's "If You Forget Me." On balance, I think I prefer Addison's contributions. Although there's some blurring, her poems tend to use the plainer language and that appeals to me more. By far the best poem here, though, is a collaboration. "The Yellow House" folds in Vincent Van Gogh and his artwork. I do enjoy Van Gogh, and so bouncing between the imagery of the poem and the recollection of the painting gave this an extra level of interest.

On a different note, while I love the cover for this collection, the font used for the poem titles could be quite difficult for me to read. When it comes to font, as far as I'm concerned it's the plainer the better.