Reviews

DMZ Colony by Don Mee Choi

hxvphaestion's review against another edition

5.0

this book. this book. this book.

urban_mermaid's review against another edition

I literally don’t have a way to rate this. This is a short. I would consider it more art than poetry. It has drawings, short stories, quotes, dialogue, homages to other artists. It is harrowing. It is truthful. It is a naked attempt to process and understand horror, colonialism, military might, and unspeakable acts. It is an immigrant and emigrant who at one remove can look at their homeland of origin and question and learn. Unrateable but thought provoking.

stuffymeowkins's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

honeyedorange's review against another edition

informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

kaileehaong's review

emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

venneh's review against another edition

4.0

As a metatextual work containing translations of survivors of civilian massacres and re-education camps during the Korean War, the author’s own reactions to a trip to the DMZ, her childhood in South Korea, and the theory of neocolonization and how it relates to the act of translation. As such, it’s dense as hell, and I will freely admit that there are parts of this that went over my head, especially in sections five and seven. But as a chapbook that works in various mediums (poems, drawings, multimedia collages, theory work), it’s a hell of an experience and has me interested both in her other chapbooks and her translation work.

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My gut says 4 stars, but this is dense as hell and I’m gonna need to let it sit a night and then I’m gonna go back and reread it

partypete's review against another edition

4.0

it’s an odd one! More than poetry or an essay, DMZ Colony is an experimental documentary chronicling the afterimage of us imperialism and the division of north and south korea, using translation, documentation, and interviews as the primary mediums. While any formal conclusion to the issue is tenuous, DMZ Colony succeeds as a hybrid work, and is beautiful to look at. I wish that it were a bit more cohesive as a whole, but that probably would have defeated its intent - that tragedy cannot be meaningfully reconciled or organized

booksofannie's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

4.0

belwau's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

cewritespoems's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0