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griffithshannah27's review
2.0
i think it says quite a bit that i've come back after 3 days to write a review of this poetry collection...
if nothing else, it's very representative of the time and place in which it was written, and i can imagine that it reflects the experience of my mum's parents, who would have been in their 20s and living in liverpool at the time this was published. it makes me feel strangely emotional for that, and reminds me that i would love to go back to liverpool and ormskirk and connect a bit with my roots haha. for that, i applaud it, and i do understand its cultural impact.
with that being said...i take issue with henri (not least because i know of his character outside of this collection). his world-weariness fails to balance the line between artistry and pretentiousness, and the majority of the works are juvenile and derivative. that, and his obsession with teenage schoolgirls, and innocence, made me feel deeply uncomfortable, and i genuinely don't understand how we can revere poems that are so openly problematic.
i vastly preferred patten and mcgough's work - i found it more intelligent, more nuanced. there were still moments where i wondered at the way that they talk about women - innocent, sweet, untouched - that were an unpleasant reminder of the male gaze, but overall i appreciated their work much more. not my favourite poetry i've ever read, but not the worst.
if nothing else, it's very representative of the time and place in which it was written, and i can imagine that it reflects the experience of my mum's parents, who would have been in their 20s and living in liverpool at the time this was published. it makes me feel strangely emotional for that, and reminds me that i would love to go back to liverpool and ormskirk and connect a bit with my roots haha. for that, i applaud it, and i do understand its cultural impact.
with that being said...i take issue with henri (not least because i know of his character outside of this collection). his world-weariness fails to balance the line between artistry and pretentiousness, and the majority of the works are juvenile and derivative. that, and his obsession with teenage schoolgirls, and innocence, made me feel deeply uncomfortable, and i genuinely don't understand how we can revere poems that are so openly problematic.
i vastly preferred patten and mcgough's work - i found it more intelligent, more nuanced. there were still moments where i wondered at the way that they talk about women - innocent, sweet, untouched - that were an unpleasant reminder of the male gaze, but overall i appreciated their work much more. not my favourite poetry i've ever read, but not the worst.
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