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dariohudon's review
5.0
I honestly can’t get enough of this book. It’s so incredibly clever and reading it aloud is a joy. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing Bök read this in person and it was wonderful, especially Chapter Y.
What gets me is that each chapter is a story as well, a testament to Bök ingenuity.
What gets me is that each chapter is a story as well, a testament to Bök ingenuity.
sim97's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
3.0
An interesting linguistic exercise. Beyond that I don’t have too many more opinions. It didn’t stay with me in any meaningful way but I appreciate how difficult it must be to write so many poems in this format.
ubalstecha's review
4.0
Eunoia is the shortest word in the English language that contains all of the regular vowels. It means beautiful thing, which this collection is. It is divided into five chapters, each one containing only words that consist of one of the vowels. So chapter one has only "A"s, chapter two "E"s and so forth and so on. It is also coherent and readable, quite an achievement for a "gimmick" book.
Worth picking up.
Worth picking up.
hflh's review against another edition
challenging
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
3.25
This is an interesting experiment structurally and phonetically and it’s fun seeing each chapter have very distinct sounds and tones. A couple chapters actually made me feel dizzy which I can’t say has ever happened to me while reading.
I appreciated this unsettling reading experience, but I found the sounds got old and a lot of the chapters were too long for me so I zoned out at some parts it I’m honest. The afterward discusses several rules that guided the writing process which made me understand why some chapters were longer and appreciate it a bit more. This is definitely more of a structure experiment first and foremost so I’d recommend reading the afterward before the poems so you can appreciate them more.
It is quite sexual and sometimes violent in your raw and gritty art type way if that bothers you. And there is some unfortunate cultural generalizing and stereotyping (Eg “Congo bongos throb to voodoo hoodoo” when voodoo and hoodoo are distinct and neither are traditionally practiced in the Congo, making it’s reductive to include them lumped together just for the rhymes, especially when anything related to Africa or the African diaspora are already so often just clumped together).
There is also a moment where a person angers some people at a bar and is getting beaten by various crowds, including “Klu-klux cults kung-fu punch[ing] them”. It will depend on each reader whether this is considered appropriate or if, in this context they’re “just words”. To me, it felt poor taste to casually reference such a violent, racist group without meaningfully engaging with it just for the sake of the rules and structure of the poetry experiment. Even if the collection is just an examination of the English language, I don’t think you can separate these words from what they represent outside of phonetics.
Overall, it’s an interesting and quick read for considering the quality of vowels in the English language. But, it could be long and boring and sometimes reduced issues of culture and race which some readers will be put off by.
Content Warnings
Minor: Racism
makennahbristow's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
intangiblemango's review against another edition
5.0
"Awkward grammar appals a craftsman. A Dada bard as daft as Tzara damns stagnant art and scrawls an alpha (a slapdash arc and a backward zag) that mars all stanzas and jams all ballads (what a scandal). A madcap vandal crafts a small black ankh-- a handstamp that can stamp a wax pad and at last plant a mark that sparks an ars magna (an abstract art charts a phrasal anagram). A pagan skald chants a dark saga (a Mahabharata), as a papal cabal blackballs all annals and tracts, all dramas and psalms: Kant and Kafka, Marx and Marat. A law as harsh as a fatwa bans all paragraphs that lack an A as a standard hallmark."
Thus begins Christian Bok's experimental poetry work Eunoia, a re-telling of the Iliad (uh, ish) with each chapter dedicated to the use of a single vowel. This is a masterpiece of style, though admittedly not of plot. I am in awe.
Note: I recommend reading the postscript, "The New Ennui" first, or at very least before the poems that begin after chapter 'U'.
Thus begins Christian Bok's experimental poetry work Eunoia, a re-telling of the Iliad (uh, ish) with each chapter dedicated to the use of a single vowel. This is a masterpiece of style, though admittedly not of plot. I am in awe.
Note: I recommend reading the postscript, "The New Ennui" first, or at very least before the poems that begin after chapter 'U'.