A review by lizshine74
An Atlas of the Difficult World: Poems 1988-1991 by Adrienne Rich

5.0

An Atlas of the Difficult World1> delivers, as Rich's collections always do. Reading her work must be ennobling; It feels as though it must. Even though so much here eluded me in the moment (i.e. I didn't "understand")--it is the lines that strike an immediate chord, then the reflection on the work as a whole that allow me to say I understood and was moved. To me, this collection seems to be a case for art, though it is difficult and there is so much suffering already. Art is better than memory for remembering. One line that cut right through: "because no one understood all picnics are eaten on the grave?"