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booksthatslay's review
challenging
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
Such an incredible collection of poetry. In this, Nguyen shows us the moments in time where a family fractures and the lifelong impact those fractures have from generation to generation. This is a collection I urge you to really lean into the format and, if you are able to, read this in physical/digital format. The use of photos, spacing and overlapping text to help tell the story was slightly confusing at first but by the end of the collection, everything clicks. It's beautiful. It's devastating. It's worth it.
Thank you so much to the publisher for the advance reader copy!
Thank you so much to the publisher for the advance reader copy!
nathansnook's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
4.5
Major thanks to NetGalley and Scribner for offering me an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts:
This one's personal.
Diana, if you are reading this, many years were spent hating my heritage. But here, in the work, in the re-work, in the way memory works, and still figuring out how it works, in these little poems, puzzles, you make the work worth it. You make understanding worth it.
And now, I will understand too. Or try to. What I mean is I've tried to do my best, I'll continue to do my best, but I hope my mother will love me when I'm trying to understand as best I can.
The poems come vague in waves at first, trying to understand the war, the now of her parents, and the loss of her brother, but when the tides tighten, much like the way memory works, time reworks the poems into a kind of understanding by way of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha in Dictee. Repetition smooths out rage, hate, guilt, and shame to become something more. Through words, through images, and even words on images. Over and over again, memory is telling in haunting echoes.
Here, Diana and her history becomes something more. It becomes the very act of becoming. Memory moves from 𝘸𝘢𝘴 to 𝘪𝘴. Or even further than that. It is is-ing.
If you enjoyed this review, please consider ordering the book through my affiliate link here.
This one's personal.
Diana, if you are reading this, many years were spent hating my heritage. But here, in the work, in the re-work, in the way memory works, and still figuring out how it works, in these little poems, puzzles, you make the work worth it. You make understanding worth it.
And now, I will understand too. Or try to. What I mean is I've tried to do my best, I'll continue to do my best, but I hope my mother will love me when I'm trying to understand as best I can.
The poems come vague in waves at first, trying to understand the war, the now of her parents, and the loss of her brother, but when the tides tighten, much like the way memory works, time reworks the poems into a kind of understanding by way of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha in Dictee. Repetition smooths out rage, hate, guilt, and shame to become something more. Through words, through images, and even words on images. Over and over again, memory is telling in haunting echoes.
Here, Diana and her history becomes something more. It becomes the very act of becoming. Memory moves from 𝘸𝘢𝘴 to 𝘪𝘴. Or even further than that. It is is-ing.
If you enjoyed this review, please consider ordering the book through my affiliate link here.
thatsoneforthebooks's review
5.0
✨ Review ✨ Root Fractures: Poems by Diana Khoi Nguyen
Not all poetry resonates with me, and most poetry that does, I only feel like I'm absorbing a small percentage of its meaning. This was one of the latter -- an incredible meditation on loss, family, memory, transnational bonds, ancestral trauma, and more. The repetition in titles echo throughout the books along with the holes left by the loss of her brother which repeat through the pages. The use of imagery, photos, and other creative visuals also made this a really cool work of poetry. I was definitely hooked into this one!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: poetry
Pub Date: 30 Jan 2024
Thanks to Scribner and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!
Not all poetry resonates with me, and most poetry that does, I only feel like I'm absorbing a small percentage of its meaning. This was one of the latter -- an incredible meditation on loss, family, memory, transnational bonds, ancestral trauma, and more. The repetition in titles echo throughout the books along with the holes left by the loss of her brother which repeat through the pages. The use of imagery, photos, and other creative visuals also made this a really cool work of poetry. I was definitely hooked into this one!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: poetry
Pub Date: 30 Jan 2024
Thanks to Scribner and #netgalley for the gifted advanced copy/ies of this book!
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