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thrillyourdarlings's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
genrejourneys's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
4.0
(Gifted an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)
Myth, madness, and the swallowing past all shape Far District: Poems, Ishion Hutchinson's debut poetry collection. In a rough narrative, we follow a speaker (The Prodigal in "New World Frescoes", I and You in many others), journeying from a childhood past in Jamaica to a present across the sea.
Hutchinson's voice, at its best, pulses with a mixture of the divine and disgust, often in awe at the natural and literary and struggling with the humans, though there too creeps in love. Lines like "tuned to the blue/ above and below" and "I know rivers the way I know hate" evoke such clear reactions, ironically often of very messy feelings. "A Small Pantheon" and "Doris at the River" were favorites for me from the collection.
Occasionally a line feels too blunt and some poems commit so much to the narrative that the more abstract poems feel more out of place as a result. But I can already see how a reread, armed with Hutchinson's notes at the end, could be particularly rewarding.
Myth, madness, and the swallowing past all shape Far District: Poems, Ishion Hutchinson's debut poetry collection. In a rough narrative, we follow a speaker (The Prodigal in "New World Frescoes", I and You in many others), journeying from a childhood past in Jamaica to a present across the sea.
Hutchinson's voice, at its best, pulses with a mixture of the divine and disgust, often in awe at the natural and literary and struggling with the humans, though there too creeps in love. Lines like "tuned to the blue/ above and below" and "I know rivers the way I know hate" evoke such clear reactions, ironically often of very messy feelings. "A Small Pantheon" and "Doris at the River" were favorites for me from the collection.
Occasionally a line feels too blunt and some poems commit so much to the narrative that the more abstract poems feel more out of place as a result. But I can already see how a reread, armed with Hutchinson's notes at the end, could be particularly rewarding.
jacob_books_corneryt's review
3.25
Ishion Hutchinson’s Far District poetry collection read like that of an art gallery. Snapshots of this young boy growing up in Jamaica. What that means and looks like. Written with beautiful pros. My only issue is most of the time the paintings weren't strong enough to convey my emotions. As much as I loved reading from Hutchinson and learning everything I can something felt off.
As the collection feels heavy and most of the poems hard to grasp at times, I found myself rereading them as I went along. Leaving for a very unsatisfying journey. Some in the middle even that didn't allow me to full enjoy the work. Which I blame on myself not Hutchinson ways to phrase a sentence.
Then you have the standout poems and those hit me like the best painting I just wish they were all like that.
As the collection feels heavy and most of the poems hard to grasp at times, I found myself rereading them as I went along. Leaving for a very unsatisfying journey. Some in the middle even that didn't allow me to full enjoy the work. Which I blame on myself not Hutchinson ways to phrase a sentence.
Then you have the standout poems and those hit me like the best painting I just wish they were all like that.
brice_mo's review against another edition
4.0
Thanks to NetGalley and FSG for the ARC!
Ishion Hutchinson’s Far District is best approached as a gallery rather than a series of discrete poems. For me, at least, very few of these pieces stood out on their own, but as a whole, they form an archive-like retelling of the speaker’s childhood in Jamaica.
These are muggy, sweaty poems enveloped in a shadowed spirituality. They are swirling and mystical, but they are regularly interrupted by intense physical description. The overall effect reads like a memory heightened by fever.
While I don’t think any single poem stands above the rest, Hutchinson has a remarkable ability to defamiliarize language and images, and as much of the book deals with European influence on the West Indies, it is an effective way to highlight just how “other” colonial influence has been. Here, it reads not only as foreign, but sinister on a spiritual level, with Christendom looming over almost every poem. Similarly, the numerous modern interruptions to a traditional, almost primeval, life feel profane within the context of the narrative.
Far District is not the most approachable book—it rewards re-reading far more than an initial read, and it almost requires readers to look beyond the text to make sense of it. It’s remarkably intertextual, and there’s a rare historical weight behind each poem. This book feels like one to spend weeks to months with, and I’m looking forward to doing so in the future.
Ishion Hutchinson’s Far District is best approached as a gallery rather than a series of discrete poems. For me, at least, very few of these pieces stood out on their own, but as a whole, they form an archive-like retelling of the speaker’s childhood in Jamaica.
These are muggy, sweaty poems enveloped in a shadowed spirituality. They are swirling and mystical, but they are regularly interrupted by intense physical description. The overall effect reads like a memory heightened by fever.
While I don’t think any single poem stands above the rest, Hutchinson has a remarkable ability to defamiliarize language and images, and as much of the book deals with European influence on the West Indies, it is an effective way to highlight just how “other” colonial influence has been. Here, it reads not only as foreign, but sinister on a spiritual level, with Christendom looming over almost every poem. Similarly, the numerous modern interruptions to a traditional, almost primeval, life feel profane within the context of the narrative.
Far District is not the most approachable book—it rewards re-reading far more than an initial read, and it almost requires readers to look beyond the text to make sense of it. It’s remarkably intertextual, and there’s a rare historical weight behind each poem. This book feels like one to spend weeks to months with, and I’m looking forward to doing so in the future.
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