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rlafleur85's review
4.0
I enjoyed "Digest" by Pulitzer Prize winner Gregory Pardlo. His poetry reflected on family relationships especially that of a father and son. He also used Brooklyn and parts of New York City as a rich context for selected poems. My favorites were from the last section "The Clinamen Improvisations" the creative critical language and content kept my interest and reread poems for another look at a masterpiece. I will revisit this work in the future. It's worth reading and enjoying even if you are hesitant and have mixed feeling about poetry.
moseslh's review
This seemed like good poetry, and I liked some of it, but it's highly esoteric and I mostly felt confused as I read it. I got some of Pardlo's references, but not enough to grasp much of his work. Overall, not accessible enough for my taste, but if you're really into poetry it might be good I suppose.
btmarino84's review
4.0
This is a kind of classic example of a book of poetry that I would have trouble with. Often the author is clearly wrestling with ideas and references that, as someone who's "not good at" poetry, just simply went over my head. I tried to just relax, and re-read them, and get what I could out of it as much as possible. The ones that struck me the most were:
"Philadelphia, Negro"
"All God's Chillun"
"Wishing Well"
"Epicurus"
"Philadelphia, Negro"
"All God's Chillun"
"Wishing Well"
"Epicurus"
ashponders's review
4.0
Astonished and a perhaps a bit ashamed I did not love this. I found little to inhabit, moments though obviously authentic, slipped by as alien as ever.
candecast's review
4.0
An very interesting journey in words, images and ideas. Reading poetry has never been my forte but reading Pardlo has been a whole new experience for me. I'll be reading many of these poems over and over again
giuliagulia's review
3.0
It's perfectly possible that I don't understand something fundamental about poetry, or that I am viewing it too narrowly, but I have read some poetry lately with very many words that required me to have the dictionary on hand to know their meanings and pronunciations. I say this with some frustration because I studied literature in school, and I wonder if I cannot understand this language, who can? PhDs? I don't know. I'm frustrated with writing that renders itself inaccessible to readers with complications. Maybe that's a specific taste thing, but I think writing should be legible by everyone.
This all being said, Pardlo clearly has a great handle on language. This language is deliberate, and the rhythms in the book are interesting and jarring.
Listen, this book has smart poems, but their inaccessibility made them not worth their while, as far as I was concerned.
This all being said, Pardlo clearly has a great handle on language. This language is deliberate, and the rhythms in the book are interesting and jarring.
Listen, this book has smart poems, but their inaccessibility made them not worth their while, as far as I was concerned.
suddenflamingword's review
4.0
I wavered between 3 and 4 stars. I've leaned towards 4, a soft 4 you might say, because while some of the poems can come across as over-scholastic in an unengaging way ("Written By Himeself" & "Corrective Lenses: Creative Reading and (Recon)textual/ization" the most explicit culprits), the way Pardlo manages metaphor is comb-tooth precise and its semi-ironic depiction of a "how-to for upwardly mobile black parents beset with the guilt of assimilation" is a clever complex - in all its meanings: suppressed psychology, hidden facility, and multivalent interpretation. It's not for no reason that "Alienation Effects" is the central poem. It's integral to understanding the sentiments of the whole, and literally the centerpiece of the collection. I can't say I loved everything, for whatever that's worth, but I respect it a lot.
abetterbradley's review
4.0
A lovely collection of poems that won the Pulitzer prize in 2015. I really loved the poetic rifts based on ancient historians.