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myweereads's review
4.0
“You wish you were a song that is a child so you could climb skipping and whistling into the lanterns and travel all the way to a dance of drowning souls.”
From what began as a dialog between two adventurous writers curious about the shape-shifter called a prose poem comes a stunning collection that is a disruption of language—a provocation. Speculate is a hybrid of speculative poetry and flash fiction, thrumming in a pulse of jouissance and intensity that chases the impossible.
Eugen Bacon and Dominique Hecq come together in this unique collection of microlit which will keep you thinking about it long after you’ve finished reading. The back and forth between these authors gives the reader a birds eye view on how they feel about what they are surrounded by wether it’s the physical world or the psychological.
I enjoyed this extraordinary collection and would definitely recommend it.
Huge thanks and congrats to @eugenbacon and @meerkatpress on publication and thank you for sending me a copy
From what began as a dialog between two adventurous writers curious about the shape-shifter called a prose poem comes a stunning collection that is a disruption of language—a provocation. Speculate is a hybrid of speculative poetry and flash fiction, thrumming in a pulse of jouissance and intensity that chases the impossible.
Eugen Bacon and Dominique Hecq come together in this unique collection of microlit which will keep you thinking about it long after you’ve finished reading. The back and forth between these authors gives the reader a birds eye view on how they feel about what they are surrounded by wether it’s the physical world or the psychological.
I enjoyed this extraordinary collection and would definitely recommend it.
Huge thanks and congrats to @eugenbacon and @meerkatpress on publication and thank you for sending me a copy
apartmentcat's review
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Speculate: A Collection of Microlit is a collection of prose poetry by Australian authors Eugene Bacon and Dominique Hecq. In each of the two halves of the book, one author begins with a poem, and the other responds with a poem of their own. The ideas bounce back and forth like a tennis match, picking up on themes or details in the previous piece, and working them into their own. Each poem is short, none longer than a page, some only a few sentences, but all are rich in imagery and evocation. Some were lofty in their themes, and others spoke of everyday occurrences.
The two authors span a great width of diversity -- one a career author and university lecturer, the other a Black immigrant who gave up a career in computing for one in writing. Yet there are also points of similarity and relateability between them. Both are women, and both live in the same city (the city I live in!), with its unique quirks and secrets. To watch them play off against each other was fascinating. I don't read much poetry, and certainly not an extended collection (the book is 136 pages long), but I found myself being drawn in and pulled towards the end by the linked nature of the pieces.
The book itself, though an ebook, is beautifully decorated throughout with monochrome watercolour backgrounds and motifs. I was pleasantly surprised at this level of detail and care. A nice touch is that the alternate poems are in italics, so I was easily able to keep track of which author had written each piece.
I enjoyed this collection much more than I thought I would, and would like to read more prose poetry and microlit in the future.
Would I read more by these authors? Yes!
Please note: this book was provided for me to read and review by the publisher. You can rest assured however, that this is (as always) an honest review!
The two authors span a great width of diversity -- one a career author and university lecturer, the other a Black immigrant who gave up a career in computing for one in writing. Yet there are also points of similarity and relateability between them. Both are women, and both live in the same city (the city I live in!), with its unique quirks and secrets. To watch them play off against each other was fascinating. I don't read much poetry, and certainly not an extended collection (the book is 136 pages long), but I found myself being drawn in and pulled towards the end by the linked nature of the pieces.
The book itself, though an ebook, is beautifully decorated throughout with monochrome watercolour backgrounds and motifs. I was pleasantly surprised at this level of detail and care. A nice touch is that the alternate poems are in italics, so I was easily able to keep track of which author had written each piece.
I enjoyed this collection much more than I thought I would, and would like to read more prose poetry and microlit in the future.
Would I read more by these authors? Yes!
Please note: this book was provided for me to read and review by the publisher. You can rest assured however, that this is (as always) an honest review!
novelbloglover's review
3.0
Book Review
Title: Speculate: A Collection of Microlit
Author: Eugen Bacon & Dominique Hecq
Genre: Speculative Fiction/Poetry
Rating: ***
Review: I recently read Eugen Bacon’s The Road to Woop Woop & Other Stories and really enjoyed it but I didn’t know much about Speculate other than it is a blend of prose and poetry and that it is the two authors “replying” to each other in a way so I was really intrigued to see what the mere 136 pages had in store for me. I have to say before I begin this review I have a love/hate relationship with both speculative fiction, which at times I can find confusing or lacking purpose, and poetry, which I find rather boring unless it is a topic or theme that really catches my attention. That being said I felt I had to read more of Bacon’s work since I loved The Road to Woop Woop which was at times confusing, strange and yet utterly delightful at the same time.
Part 1 is Bacon’s prose poetry and Hecq’s response to them. Part 1 was very hit of miss for me, with poetry, whether it is straight poetry or prose poetry it doesn’t seem to resonate with me as a reader unless there is some visceral imagery or some deep connection emotion to tie everything together. There were moments in Part 1 where the words really captured me and drew me in but most of the time it seemed quite disjointed and left me a little confused about what Bacon was actually trying to convey as most of the poems don’t seem to tie in together or having a unified theme or message. That being said, I really enjoyed Hecq’s responses to the poems which did resonate with me a lot more and I found myself understanding their messages through the response rather than from the prose poetry itself. Hecq also at times conveyed exactly what I was thinking or feeling in response to particular sections of the text.
Part 2 is the opposite of Part 1 as it is Bacon replying to Hecq’s prose poetry. I was looking forward to this section as I enjoyed Hecq’s response to Bacon’s prose poetry more than the prose poetry and I was excited to see what Hecq would come out with. Part 2 was better for me as it had a bit more coherency that Part 1 in terms of the prose poetry but again, I found myself enjoying the responses the prose poetry more than the actual poems.
Overall, I found I had a love/hate relationship with this book. On the one hand, I loved both author’s responses to the other prose poetry and I really connected with the ideas presented in the response. However, on the other hand, I didn’t really enjoy the prose poetry as it seemed to lack coherency or any unified theme or message to carry the read through the book. While I will mention that there was some stunning imagery presented, I found myself feeling a little confused at the end about what the purpose of the book actually was as there didn’t seem to be one. I think my 3 star rating is fair for how I felt during and after reading this book, however, I will say if you enjoyed speculative fiction and poetry in ways I do not then you will probably enjoy this book a lot more than I did. Despite this I will definitely be keeping an eye on what Eugen Bacon publishes since I loved The Road to Woop Woop and I will definitely check out anything else Dominique Hecq has published to see where she is an author I would read from in the future.
Title: Speculate: A Collection of Microlit
Author: Eugen Bacon & Dominique Hecq
Genre: Speculative Fiction/Poetry
Rating: ***
Review: I recently read Eugen Bacon’s The Road to Woop Woop & Other Stories and really enjoyed it but I didn’t know much about Speculate other than it is a blend of prose and poetry and that it is the two authors “replying” to each other in a way so I was really intrigued to see what the mere 136 pages had in store for me. I have to say before I begin this review I have a love/hate relationship with both speculative fiction, which at times I can find confusing or lacking purpose, and poetry, which I find rather boring unless it is a topic or theme that really catches my attention. That being said I felt I had to read more of Bacon’s work since I loved The Road to Woop Woop which was at times confusing, strange and yet utterly delightful at the same time.
Part 1 is Bacon’s prose poetry and Hecq’s response to them. Part 1 was very hit of miss for me, with poetry, whether it is straight poetry or prose poetry it doesn’t seem to resonate with me as a reader unless there is some visceral imagery or some deep connection emotion to tie everything together. There were moments in Part 1 where the words really captured me and drew me in but most of the time it seemed quite disjointed and left me a little confused about what Bacon was actually trying to convey as most of the poems don’t seem to tie in together or having a unified theme or message. That being said, I really enjoyed Hecq’s responses to the poems which did resonate with me a lot more and I found myself understanding their messages through the response rather than from the prose poetry itself. Hecq also at times conveyed exactly what I was thinking or feeling in response to particular sections of the text.
Part 2 is the opposite of Part 1 as it is Bacon replying to Hecq’s prose poetry. I was looking forward to this section as I enjoyed Hecq’s response to Bacon’s prose poetry more than the prose poetry and I was excited to see what Hecq would come out with. Part 2 was better for me as it had a bit more coherency that Part 1 in terms of the prose poetry but again, I found myself enjoying the responses the prose poetry more than the actual poems.
Overall, I found I had a love/hate relationship with this book. On the one hand, I loved both author’s responses to the other prose poetry and I really connected with the ideas presented in the response. However, on the other hand, I didn’t really enjoy the prose poetry as it seemed to lack coherency or any unified theme or message to carry the read through the book. While I will mention that there was some stunning imagery presented, I found myself feeling a little confused at the end about what the purpose of the book actually was as there didn’t seem to be one. I think my 3 star rating is fair for how I felt during and after reading this book, however, I will say if you enjoyed speculative fiction and poetry in ways I do not then you will probably enjoy this book a lot more than I did. Despite this I will definitely be keeping an eye on what Eugen Bacon publishes since I loved The Road to Woop Woop and I will definitely check out anything else Dominique Hecq has published to see where she is an author I would read from in the future.
suganya_mohankumar's review
challenging
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.0
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https://thesuganyamohankumar.wordpress.com/
I haven’t read many books with prose poetry. It was an illuminating and exhilarating experience. It was as if I had to use every cell in my body in order to understand what was being written in these short one-page prose. This book is art. It takes time and effort to understand.
The book, itself is not that long, but it took me quite some time to read it. I had to pause, and at times, re-read the passage in order to absorb it.
Rating: 3/5 Stars
Plot:
As this is a collection of prose poetry, there was not plot. Each one of these segments was unique and sharp. One author would write a prose poem and the other would respond. It was interesting to see how the authors reacted to each other’s writing. It was like reading bits of conversations but without a context to them.
Writing Style:
This book was written using prose poetry. I have to admit I didn’t know what exactly that was. I had to do a little bit of research, here’s what I learned:
1. A prose poem is basically a poem written as a sentence. Therefore, is a block of text without line breaks.
2. It is able to maintain the power of poetry to be lyrical but look like prose.
This book was quite difficult for me to get it to. Each prose poem was short and distinct. I don’t read much poetry, and usually I read long form literature, which is why I think this was a little difficult. But once I understood what was happening, I was able to get into a rhythm of reading them.
I had so many lines that resonated with me, on a deep level.
Here are two:
1. Lies we tell until we hear gods laughing so hard the universe splits its sides and music falls from the stars.
2. We learn the taste of blood and tears in the womb.
Final Thoughts:
Overall, I had difficulty reading this book. But I think that was the purpose of this book. It was to make the reader think about the physical world around them as well the philosophical one. I was not able to connect the words as a whole, but I was able to enjoy the vivid imagery that was present.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to try prose poetry and expand their reading.
Rating: 3/5 Stars
*Disclaimer: This is not sponsored blog post. Thank you, Meerkat Press for sending an electronic copy of book.
*The opinions expressed in this post are my own.
*Spoiler-free Review
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