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chillcox15's review
4.0
I wasn't overly taken with Fusselman's essay in verse, but I do think it has a lot to recommend it, including the raw ways Fusselman talks about her relationship with alcohol and her mother and how that affects her relationship with her own kids. There are a few severely pat declarations made here or there that do negatively alter my view of the book, but it's a swift read that operates on many different levels at once, so I can admire it for that.
kjboldon's review
5.0
"This is a problem:
your writing is not short stories,
it is not a novel
it is nonfiction but it is not the kind of nonfiction we are used to,
it doesnt sound like poetry.
Just put it in a box, would you?
Just put it in a box so we can contain it?"
Fusselman's book length lyric essay defies easy categorization. It's about the origin of the Nutcracker ballet, being a mother and daughter, and an alcoholic. It's a dazzling, spinning whirl among these topics.
your writing is not short stories,
it is not a novel
it is nonfiction but it is not the kind of nonfiction we are used to,
it doesnt sound like poetry.
Just put it in a box, would you?
Just put it in a box so we can contain it?"
Fusselman's book length lyric essay defies easy categorization. It's about the origin of the Nutcracker ballet, being a mother and daughter, and an alcoholic. It's a dazzling, spinning whirl among these topics.
yanulya's review
4.0
This slender book was a delight -- hurray for the "new arrivals" display at the library, or I never would've known about it. I'd discovered another of hers, The Pharmacist's Mate, at Dave Eggers' pirate -store-slash-writing-workshop-venue in San Francisco about 17 years ago, and didn't remember much about it except that at the time I'd felt like I'd discovered a well-kept secret. I love her smart, quirky, wandering mind and the way she dances with words.
jimmylorunning's review
5.0
The most creative and poetic essay I've read in a while, and one that captures the quiet desperation of the times we live in (and what a whole fuckload of fun but also tenderly melancholic and long fermented in hardship, empathy, meditation). Ultimately for me it's about celebration. It's about joy and hope, maybe delusional (maybe not); one where we break out of this world i.e. this narrative and into one where an essay like this is possible. Where mice are dancing and getting gay married and cockroaches are riding gall bladder cars. It's not escapism, it's an acknowledgment of everything we can and cannot see, and opting to create another more real reality based on fantasy. Why not? I could go on and on analyzing the many interwoven themes that lace this amazing piece, but it's only 100 pages and you're already dying to read it
adrianogletree's review
5.0
I may be biased because I love The Nutcracker, but I am still shook by how Amy tied in so many different themes/metaphors in this experimental essay. This was deeply honest, angry, funny, and creative.
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