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jayishino's review against another edition
5.0
There are no spoilers here. From the moment you begin reading Elegies, you know that each person Mary talks about is dead. She says things like "You were..." and when the person speaks their dialogue is italicized because you know they are not really speaking at all. Despite the fact that you know this, this book still works. Like Mary did, you get to know and love each of these people individually as their stories unfold. You don't love them instantly but you build up, through reading, a kind of relationship with these people almost like Mary did. And if you're anything like me, you're still a little sad when you find out the details of their deaths. I wholeheartedly recommend this book. The first chapter, by far the best, had me in tears. Please read this; I don't think you'll be sad you did.
heatherbrae_bock's review
5.0
Beautifully written and poetic... this is a portrait of Mary Murphy, the narrator, and she ends up telling her own story through the elegies she writes for five people who have helped to shape her life, sometimes in unexpected ways. Hodgen uses rhythmic poetic constructions throughout the book, often right at the beginning of one of the elegies, and it immediately draws you in and captures your attention. For example:
"Elwood LePoer, your head was a brick, a block, a lollipop. You were dumb as a stick, a sock, a bag of rocks."
or
"Fat and black, fat and black, did I have any goddamn idea, you asked, what it meant to be fat, to be black, any goddamn idea what a drag it was sometimes..."
These vignettes explore the ways that people change our lives, both those close to us and those who appear in our lives only fleetingly. Sad and gritty, this is a beautifully written book.
"Elwood LePoer, your head was a brick, a block, a lollipop. You were dumb as a stick, a sock, a bag of rocks."
or
"Fat and black, fat and black, did I have any goddamn idea, you asked, what it meant to be fat, to be black, any goddamn idea what a drag it was sometimes..."
These vignettes explore the ways that people change our lives, both those close to us and those who appear in our lives only fleetingly. Sad and gritty, this is a beautifully written book.
oddlyfemme's review against another edition
4.0
This may not be the best book you ever read, but it is different. It's well written, but a few of the "chapters" are a little too long. It did capture me more than any book I have read recently, though.
dreesreads's review against another edition
4.0
An excellent book, though I didn't really warm up to it until the 4th elegy. The 4th and 5th were far and away the best, the 2nd and 3rd the weakest. Or, rather, why they are there is less obvious. The 4th really pulls the past and future together, I felt. The first and 4th had the most positive influence on Mary, the narrator.
This would be an excellent book club book. The purpose of the 5 different elegies--and why the narrator considered them her 5 unforgettable people--could be discussed to no end :)
This would be an excellent book club book. The purpose of the 5 different elegies--and why the narrator considered them her 5 unforgettable people--could be discussed to no end :)
emmastia's review
4.0
I found this book very moving, interesting and incredibly well-written. It is broken down into five distinct sections, elegies for 5 people who were extremely important to the main character. It was an excellent device for story-telling, not so different from the inter-connected short story device used in books like [b:Olive Kitteridge|1736739|Olive Kitteridge|Elizabeth Strout|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1239113569s/1736739.jpg|3263906].
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