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blairmahoney's review
4.0
This is the first collection of Glück's that I've read and was prompted by her winning the Nobel Prize last year. I liked this quite a lot; Glück takes the story of the Odyssey and lays it over a modern day relationship. It didn't feel like it had quite the excitement of Anne Carson's poetic engagement with classical mythology; it's a more low key encounter, but I'm glad I checked it out.
jessthanthree's review
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity and Toxic relationship
blurstoftimes's review
4.0
A stunning collection that wrestles between generic hybridity and heady wonderment. For those who haven’t read The Odyssey, you may struggle to grapple with the context, but Glück herself is often unconcerned with mimicking the fables, instead she opts to repaint it with her own life design in substitution.
Some stunningly poetic aphorisms:
“Nothing
is always the answer; the answer
depends on the story.”
and
“We look at the world once, in childhood.
The rest is memory.”
The text does lose its way a bit towards the end, and not every poem (“Parable of The Beast” felt detached from the action, in my opinion) is necessary or as poignant as “Moonless Night” and “Nostos,” but there’s at least something to gain from reading them.
Maybe a bit anticlimactic too. I didn’t feel a full resolve by the end. Maybe thats what Glück wants?
Some stunningly poetic aphorisms:
“Nothing
is always the answer; the answer
depends on the story.”
and
“We look at the world once, in childhood.
The rest is memory.”
The text does lose its way a bit towards the end, and not every poem (“Parable of The Beast” felt detached from the action, in my opinion) is necessary or as poignant as “Moonless Night” and “Nostos,” but there’s at least something to gain from reading them.
Maybe a bit anticlimactic too. I didn’t feel a full resolve by the end. Maybe thats what Glück wants?
hopegreen's review against another edition
3.0
a beautifully unified collection, with delightfully veiled allusions to the odyssey throughout.
cambriakalt's review
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
tativieira's review
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
tarinisehgal's review
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
when you see her again, tell her this is how a god says goodbye: if I am in her head forever I am in your life forever <\3
casparb's review
Sways back n forth with many extraneous pieces but I do feel the diamonds in the rough Are diamonds. Glück’s conceit with Penelope/Circe here is so perplexing because I feel it really nearly works I was worried at first because while Penelope can work I don’t tend to find her too transformative post-Joyce (sorry). With that being said, Ithaca is one of the most effective in here for me & concisely cuts as Glück ought. Transformation to Circe I kind of like conceptually & maybe nice for the detailing of a divorce but it reads a little tenuous too me and not carried through as she could have.
The Rock naturally brilliant though it really is a rock amid this ocean a xenolith I wouldn’t be too surprised if this collection maybe came together with a few offcuts from TWI & notebooks (sorry again).
Not to be Caspar-one-note but there’s a great deal to Meadowlands which seems to look at the reader and dare them to ask about Glück’s development of prosopopoeia for the dead-in-living (et v.v). This is where I have the most fun too but I don’t think it’s to be a crux of a collection. Dead form loom-woven & Penelope remade this way. Pigs
The Rock naturally brilliant though it really is a rock amid this ocean a xenolith I wouldn’t be too surprised if this collection maybe came together with a few offcuts from TWI & notebooks (sorry again).
Not to be Caspar-one-note but there’s a great deal to Meadowlands which seems to look at the reader and dare them to ask about Glück’s development of prosopopoeia for the dead-in-living (et v.v). This is where I have the most fun too but I don’t think it’s to be a crux of a collection. Dead form loom-woven & Penelope remade this way. Pigs