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westonheartswords's review
4.0
Matthea Harvey is one of my, if not my absolute, favorite poets, and Modern Life is absolutely a testament to why. Harvey's playfulness with language, and most notably, her ability to turn the surreal into the deeply sad with startling suddenness, are what have always drawn me to her work. She knows how to conjure up images that are both powerful and strange, creating mini-tableaux of the unfamiliar that somehow seems familiar enough.
However, the thing that makes me knock off a star, unlike the 5/5 I gave her for her most recent collection, is that at two points, her cleverness seems to wear out its welcome: with the two sections on The Future of Terror and Terror of the Future, each featuring 11 or 10 poems which, themselves, feature words alphabetically between future and terror. After a few poems in each section, the form becomes clear, and it's difficult to get past it. That isn't to say that Harvey cannot do sequences of poems well--my favorite section of the book is a series of 10 or so poems centering around the character "Robo-Boy," which begins and end with sad, contemplative moments. However, because those two sections rely on a very precise structure, when combined with Harvey's super clever command of language, it can be exhausting trying to get through those poems without being caught up in how pretty the individual phrases are.
All in all, though, Harvey quite impressed me as she usually does, and this collection shines! I'm only taking off a star because of those two sections which made it hard for me to really embrace this one as everything I'd want in a poetry collection.
However, the thing that makes me knock off a star, unlike the 5/5 I gave her for her most recent collection, is that at two points, her cleverness seems to wear out its welcome: with the two sections on The Future of Terror and Terror of the Future, each featuring 11 or 10 poems which, themselves, feature words alphabetically between future and terror. After a few poems in each section, the form becomes clear, and it's difficult to get past it. That isn't to say that Harvey cannot do sequences of poems well--my favorite section of the book is a series of 10 or so poems centering around the character "Robo-Boy," which begins and end with sad, contemplative moments. However, because those two sections rely on a very precise structure, when combined with Harvey's super clever command of language, it can be exhausting trying to get through those poems without being caught up in how pretty the individual phrases are.
All in all, though, Harvey quite impressed me as she usually does, and this collection shines! I'm only taking off a star because of those two sections which made it hard for me to really embrace this one as everything I'd want in a poetry collection.
notroubles's review
4.0
Later, when your lungs filed with liquid, you might have said love, you might have said leave. I said I love you too and left the room. There was no ice storm, no helicoptered-in help, no Hollywood end. Just a gasp and then no more you, which meant the end of me too. (p.54)
xterminal's review
4.0
Matthea Harvey, Modern Life (Graywolf Press, 2007)
“The ham flowers have veins and are rimmed in rind, a little meat sunset.”
(“Implications for Modern Life”)
I opened Matthea Harvey's Modern Life, turned to the first page, and was greeted with this as an introduction to her work. How could I not immediately fall in love? And I'm happy to say that as the collection progresses, it pretty much stay this good. Of course, the pit- and pratfalls of this sort of comic-grotesque brilliance do appear along the way, and it's not all as wonderful as one might hope; there are a handful of poems in this collection that are simply far too precious for their own (or anyone else's) good, viz. the complete text of “A Theory of Generations”:
You're it.
You're it.
You're it.
...and two entire sections of the book are taken up with odd abecedarian exercises (“The Future of Terror” and “Terror of the Future” respectively) which, by their very nature, tend to sound forced on occasion. But when Matthea Harvey is on her game, as she is in the bulk of the work to be found here, it's pure gold. Here I had intended to insert a choice bit of “The Lost Marching Band”, my favorite piece in the book, but as I read it again, I realize it's not possible to pull out a fragment. I cannot recommend highly enough that you grab yourself a copy of this one and read it yourself, as well as the rest of the book; this is a whole lot of fun. ****
“The ham flowers have veins and are rimmed in rind, a little meat sunset.”
(“Implications for Modern Life”)
I opened Matthea Harvey's Modern Life, turned to the first page, and was greeted with this as an introduction to her work. How could I not immediately fall in love? And I'm happy to say that as the collection progresses, it pretty much stay this good. Of course, the pit- and pratfalls of this sort of comic-grotesque brilliance do appear along the way, and it's not all as wonderful as one might hope; there are a handful of poems in this collection that are simply far too precious for their own (or anyone else's) good, viz. the complete text of “A Theory of Generations”:
You're it.
You're it.
You're it.
...and two entire sections of the book are taken up with odd abecedarian exercises (“The Future of Terror” and “Terror of the Future” respectively) which, by their very nature, tend to sound forced on occasion. But when Matthea Harvey is on her game, as she is in the bulk of the work to be found here, it's pure gold. Here I had intended to insert a choice bit of “The Lost Marching Band”, my favorite piece in the book, but as I read it again, I realize it's not possible to pull out a fragment. I cannot recommend highly enough that you grab yourself a copy of this one and read it yourself, as well as the rest of the book; this is a whole lot of fun. ****
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