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ampersunder's review
4.0
“Turns out the real reason for growing up was to learn what to do with suffering.
Not being surprised was the answer.
What else do you want to know?”
(from “Powers”)
(from “Powers”)
raloveridge's review
2.0
I did not enjoy this terribly much! There's a quality to the poems here that just made me feel sad—the speakers are jaded and neurotic but not in a revelatory or compelling way. There are a few poems that knocked me around in the best way ("Muchness," for one), but on the whole, these felt surface-y, unsurprising.
And the narrative then, having done its work,
it vanished too,
leaving just its affectionate cousin description behind.
—Description,
which lingers,
and loves for no reason.
—from "Muchness"
And the narrative then, having done its work,
it vanished too,
leaving just its affectionate cousin description behind.
—Description,
which lingers,
and loves for no reason.
—from "Muchness"
cgcpoems's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This was my first Tony Hoagland and I wasn’t disappointed. What I was struck by most was how well he utilized humor in his poems. It never felt overdone or forced. It was natural, like humor is in real life.
jheinemann287's review
3.0
A bit, um, on the nose?
I mean, Tony Hoagland and I share similar worldviews, but I found myself rolling my eyes way too many times. A beautiful girl on a billboard is covered with melted cheese under "the breathalyzer moon" (5). America is a crashed jumbo jet, "its dependence on foreign oil / brought to a sudden conclusion" (66). America writes a dear-abby letter about her blood-drenched, imperialist father (15). Like, true, but also calm down.
He's a nice contrast with [a:Mary Oliver|23988|Mary Oliver|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1429857566p2/23988.jpg] though. My book club read [b:A Thousand Mornings|13588404|A Thousand Mornings|Mary Oliver|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1345433150s/13588404.jpg|19175806] alongside this Hoagland collection, and I enjoyed how his first poem "Description" was kind of an indictment of Oliver's whole shtick: He describes an overwrought nature scene of birds and trees and petals and then goes, "In all this a place must be / reserved for human suffering / ... How description was the sign of acceptance." I feel that.
I also feel this: "Oh life! Can you blame me / for making a scene?" (49).
Hoagland is at his best not with giant, contrived metaphors but with the quieter moments between humans just trying to be.
Favorites: "I Have News For You," "The Perfect Moment," "Field Guide," "Rhythm and Blues," and "Wild"
I mean, Tony Hoagland and I share similar worldviews, but I found myself rolling my eyes way too many times. A beautiful girl on a billboard is covered with melted cheese under "the breathalyzer moon" (5). America is a crashed jumbo jet, "its dependence on foreign oil / brought to a sudden conclusion" (66). America writes a dear-abby letter about her blood-drenched, imperialist father (15). Like, true, but also calm down.
He's a nice contrast with [a:Mary Oliver|23988|Mary Oliver|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1429857566p2/23988.jpg] though. My book club read [b:A Thousand Mornings|13588404|A Thousand Mornings|Mary Oliver|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1345433150s/13588404.jpg|19175806] alongside this Hoagland collection, and I enjoyed how his first poem "Description" was kind of an indictment of Oliver's whole shtick: He describes an overwrought nature scene of birds and trees and petals and then goes, "In all this a place must be / reserved for human suffering / ... How description was the sign of acceptance." I feel that.
I also feel this: "Oh life! Can you blame me / for making a scene?" (49).
Hoagland is at his best not with giant, contrived metaphors but with the quieter moments between humans just trying to be.
Favorites: "I Have News For You," "The Perfect Moment," "Field Guide," "Rhythm and Blues," and "Wild"
kristennd's review
3.0
I did not love this collection as much as the last two. Maybe in part it's just getting used to his style? Not sure. Different themes seem to recur in each book and the ones this time -- international politics, consumerism, cancer -- didn't strike as much of a chord with me as some of the earlier topics.
Some pieces may not age well, with references to Bill Gates, Britney Spears, the DC-area snipers, etc. But it is nice to see references to current events in the meantime.
There are a handful of erotic pieces in this collection. Straightforward ones.
Dialectical Materialism was one of the strongest pieces until a disorienting 'plot twist' at the end. I missed how that fit in. Also particularly liked I Have News for You, Big Grab, and Plastic.
Random bits:
"the flounce of a pedigreed blonde"
"The middle aged man
who cannot make love to his wife
with the erectile authority of yesteryear"
Visiting his dying father:
"For that occasion, I had carefully prepared
a suitcase full of small talk"
Some pieces may not age well, with references to Bill Gates, Britney Spears, the DC-area snipers, etc. But it is nice to see references to current events in the meantime.
There are a handful of erotic pieces in this collection. Straightforward ones.
Dialectical Materialism was one of the strongest pieces until a disorienting 'plot twist' at the end. I missed how that fit in. Also particularly liked I Have News for You, Big Grab, and Plastic.
Random bits:
"the flounce of a pedigreed blonde"
"The middle aged man
who cannot make love to his wife
with the erectile authority of yesteryear"
Visiting his dying father:
"For that occasion, I had carefully prepared
a suitcase full of small talk"
kmonty's review
3.0
Intriguing work, some great lines, a lot of focus on consumerism and American culture. Overall, good, but I don't feel a need to own a copy, and none of the poems were strikingly memorable. Still, I'd read more of Hoagland's work and appreciated his structure and clarity without the annoying Billy Collins feel.
shaunnow38's review
3.0
Hoagland has created a really sound collection of poetry that zooms into the soul for a view of the agony and ennui of American existence before zooming out to see the vast world of corporate and consumption culture.
Hoagland writes beautifully in this work, with a particular elegance in his treatment of man's intersection with nature and with material. Hoagland captures the uncertainties, the triumphs, the failures, and the little beats of daily life.
The poems here are sensitive to the fragile and the hurting. They are keen viewers of the past, the present, and each's actants.
This collection does move a bit towards repitition, with the second half feeling less punchy than the first. Hoagland is also very straightforward with his style, taking a conversational eloquence over a formal variance.
Overall the collection is quite a fine one, although I don't feel his statements are as provocative as I initially thought them to be.
Notable poems include:
Food Court
I Have News for You
Hard Rain
Cement Truck
My Father's Vocabulary
Summer
Requests for Toy Piano
Muchness
Hoagland writes beautifully in this work, with a particular elegance in his treatment of man's intersection with nature and with material. Hoagland captures the uncertainties, the triumphs, the failures, and the little beats of daily life.
The poems here are sensitive to the fragile and the hurting. They are keen viewers of the past, the present, and each's actants.
This collection does move a bit towards repitition, with the second half feeling less punchy than the first. Hoagland is also very straightforward with his style, taking a conversational eloquence over a formal variance.
Overall the collection is quite a fine one, although I don't feel his statements are as provocative as I initially thought them to be.
Notable poems include:
Food Court
I Have News for You
Hard Rain
Cement Truck
My Father's Vocabulary
Summer
Requests for Toy Piano
Muchness
ericattang's review
5.0
Every single poem explores the modern world in a distinct perspective. My favorites are: I Have News for You, "Poor Britney Spears," the Story of the Father, the Situation, and My Father's Vocabulary.
serenaac's review
5.0
Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty by Tony Hoagland is his first collection of poems in 10 years, according to the Graywolf representative at the expo. The collection features poems that call into question the realities of the modern world from our dating rituals to our trips to the mall food court.
In “Big Grab,” Hoagland suggests language is taking on meanings that are less than they are. “The Big Grab,/so the concept of Big is quietly modified/to mean More Or Less Large, or Only Slightly/Less Big than Before.// Confucius said this would happen –/that language would be hijacked and twisted/” (page 5). This collection not only tackles the language changes our society faces and what those changes mean, but it also looks carefully at the world of celebrity in “Poor Britney Spears.”
Read the review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2010/07/unincorporated-persons-in-the-late-honda-dynasty-by-tony-hoagland.html
In “Big Grab,” Hoagland suggests language is taking on meanings that are less than they are. “The Big Grab,/so the concept of Big is quietly modified/to mean More Or Less Large, or Only Slightly/Less Big than Before.// Confucius said this would happen –/that language would be hijacked and twisted/” (page 5). This collection not only tackles the language changes our society faces and what those changes mean, but it also looks carefully at the world of celebrity in “Poor Britney Spears.”
Read the review: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2010/07/unincorporated-persons-in-the-late-honda-dynasty-by-tony-hoagland.html