Scan barcode
pyrrhicspondee's review
5.0
This was a wonderful, remarkable book of poetry. The first poem includes the word "soul" and I STILL FUCKING LOVED IT. This is unprecedented, as nothing kills a poem faster for me than "soul"--or "upon." These poems are effortless in the way that I know took one million drafts, and the ideas all slide into place despite being all over the place. I have daydreams of making students read the essay about salmon fishers and having them illustrate it. The final long poem (not including the somewhat dumb actual final poem), "Personal Essay" is breathtaking and I must read it another eight times. I am somewhat biased here, as I had Vijay for a professor in grad school and think he is just one of the loveliest and kindest people in the world. I have many fond memories of awkward conversations with him. But really really really, this is fully worthy of all the praise and that Pulitzer.
jeeleongkoh's review
5.0
Vijay Seshadri's third collection, and it's well worth waiting for. The book is marvelous, constantly surprising. I enjoyed again the lacerating "Memoir" (which first appeared in The New Yorker) and the three apocalyptic visions of "This Morning" (which I first heard at a PSA reading). "Three Persons" is still a particular favorite. The theme of containing multitudes recurs in different guises throughout the book, culminating in the transformative ending of "Personal Essay," where the faces seen in a trance are themselves and more than themselves. I also love the essay "Pacific Fishes of Canada" and will be sharing it with a colleague who teaches Moby Dick. The book takes many risks in its language--colloquial, mythic, sentimental, scientific--but rides the waves through the energy of its sentences.
More...