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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
4.25! Experimental and very short. A quiet reflection on the passing of days crafted in a tender and surprisingly emotional arc.
This is an interesting experiment, and in some ways it worked and some ways it didn't. It's a pretty cool idea to take someone else's diary and do erasure writing with it, but the sentences were choppy and I wish it had a bit more of a throughline besides sickness and weather. It had a lot of potential, and I was left thinking about the sometimes overlooked beauty of monotony. It also made me think about what I choose to put down into my own journals, and about the tediousness of the habit. Kinda cool.
You probably want to read this book if you like blackout poetry, want a super short read, don't mind poor grammar/sentence structure, and like experimental writing. :)
You probably want to read this book if you like blackout poetry, want a super short read, don't mind poor grammar/sentence structure, and like experimental writing. :)
I'm declining to rate what comes across as an oddity because it isn't enough on its own. It took about twenty minutes to read through this diary which was a real five-year diary the author found and then manipulated into a year's worth of entries. It was a step back in time to when my grandparents would have been about the same age as the diarist. So the language is familiar, the illnesses of townsfolk and family sandwiched with how pretty the day might have been or how the snowflakes were falling. If this sounds like I didn't like it, that's a wrong impression. But it's an artifact of a time before and to me, that's all.
reflective
medium-paced
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I love the idea of this experiment but I completely distrust the author with someone else's words. There's a power imbalance that leaves me uncomfortable.
I would say this is more of an art project than a traditional book. It contains a very enjoyable strangeness.
I enjoyed learning about the creation of these poems. The author found a diary at an estate sale and used the entries to create poems. It was also interesting to be able to follow along with the original writer's day-to-day life through poems.