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3.73 AVERAGE
3.73 AVERAGE
Quick read but I took my time. Interesting juxtaposition of the couplets and then the prose where she talks to herself as you (is that still third person illeism? ). Reminds me a bit of a previous book (edit to add later), in that it seems like it could be self fiction? In any case, good relating of love and initial enamoration vs what a relationship becomes. (And interesting that she teaches writing at Yale - this does at times seem a bit like some sort of thesis project/challenge. )
3.11
“all I cared about was trying to maintain.
Then she’d turn to someone new and kill the flame,
and I would have to wait there in the dark,
pitying myself, my stupid heart,
or chase her down and pick another fight
to get our little spark to reignite.”
4.11 (which seems rather self-reflective and talking about the actual act of writing this work)
“at all. In poetry then, let me say that love
has been, above all things, the engine of
self-knowledge in my life—and even after everything
is still what makes the rest worth suffering.”
3.11
“all I cared about was trying to maintain.
Then she’d turn to someone new and kill the flame,
and I would have to wait there in the dark,
pitying myself, my stupid heart,
or chase her down and pick another fight
to get our little spark to reignite.”
4.11 (which seems rather self-reflective and talking about the actual act of writing this work)
“at all. In poetry then, let me say that love
has been, above all things, the engine of
self-knowledge in my life—and even after everything
is still what makes the rest worth suffering.”
I really enjoyed reading this.
This explores the experience of realising you’re queer late in your twenties, sabotaging a relationship, and the sapphic relationship that follows messing with your head.
I particularly enjoyed the presentation of queer obsession, particularly that “first” queer relationship and what it means, and realising who you are in between it all. The continuous, stream-of-consciousness vibe really worked to represent the panic and questioning that comes with this kind of experience.
The reason for the slightly lower rating is I personally didn’t love the couplets for this, I think free verse would’ve suited it better - couplets felt too restrictive for the mess that is this experience. Maybe that’s what the author was trying to show? Unsure, but I didn’t love it. This structure also really quickened the pace, and made it like a fever dream. This really worked for me with the content, but forced me to rush through, when I really wanted to take my time and savour what was being said.
Overall a really engaging and enjoyable read of queer poetry. Definitely recommend.
This explores the experience of realising you’re queer late in your twenties, sabotaging a relationship, and the sapphic relationship that follows messing with your head.
I particularly enjoyed the presentation of queer obsession, particularly that “first” queer relationship and what it means, and realising who you are in between it all. The continuous, stream-of-consciousness vibe really worked to represent the panic and questioning that comes with this kind of experience.
The reason for the slightly lower rating is I personally didn’t love the couplets for this, I think free verse would’ve suited it better - couplets felt too restrictive for the mess that is this experience. Maybe that’s what the author was trying to show? Unsure, but I didn’t love it. This structure also really quickened the pace, and made it like a fever dream. This really worked for me with the content, but forced me to rush through, when I really wanted to take my time and savour what was being said.
Overall a really engaging and enjoyable read of queer poetry. Definitely recommend.
Dr Seuss for people who wear Dr Martens. quick, incredibly relatable, sexy enough to read at work.
“And an uncanny sense of unity,
to love in her what had always seemed deformity
in me. To yield. To feel the snugness of the fit.
To turn the lock. To hear the little click.”
to love in her what had always seemed deformity
in me. To yield. To feel the snugness of the fit.
To turn the lock. To hear the little click.”
Couplets is hard for me to rate because while I see how well written it is, it didn’t really resonate with me. I was disappointed because the summary sounded great, but I suppose I still have a hard time with poetry explication decades after college. I wasn’t the right audience but I would certainly recommend to other people who like contemporary poetry.
hopeful
sad
Some beautiful lines, but they don’t add up to much. Despite the unique structure, I think this will be a quickly forgotten read.
Perhaps I just didn't get the point. Perhaps I just found it boring. Perhaps I just got tired of every poem mentioning sex. Who knows?
Written by a 28-year-old Yale grad who seems much younger than that, though I don’t necessarily mean that as an insult. This book is about a chapter of her life that she calls a “second adolescence,” though it really feels like a first adolescence, a time when the most important thing you can imagine is whether or not you might break up with someone and start dating someone else, and whether you can apply Audre Lorde quotes directly to that experience. And yet, for all my eye-rolling, I kind of loved it? So willfully dramatic, so insistent upon the idea that this ordinary relationship is *so wildly romantic,* and yet, such a fantastic, playful form (couplets!) that made me think more about expectation and repetition in language and in relationships. Plus it was legitimately fun to read, a bit like Madam Bovary, if Flaubert’s heroine were a cool kid from Brooklyn.