Reviews

Crush by Richard Siken

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josemclr's review against another edition

5.0

Pues... ¿qué puedo decir? Tendría que leer algunos de los poemas, mínimo, tres veces más para poder darme una idea más clara de su intención pero hasta el momento me impactaron tanto que es imposible darle menos de cinco estrellas. Las imágenes que crea Siken son hermosas y provocadoras. Realmente me quedé con la boca abierta más de una vez y con ganas de que el suelo se abriera y me tragara por completo. Además, no sé si esté en mi imaginación y me haya vuelto loco, pero creo que todos (o la mayoria de) los poemas están conectados entre sí de alguna forma y cuentan una historia. También es algo que tendría que analizar en una relectura pero es impresionante.

herblueglasses's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.5

c_seonjyung's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

4.25

rorienew's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

3.75

kylieve's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

Vulnerable, beautiful, and sad. I’ve seen a lot of quotes from this book around the internet. It really does live up to the hype. It’s so so so lovely and everyone should read it.

rodney1946's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.0

The Director of Love

Richard Siken's
Crush is an amazing book. The long lines are merciless and perfect. They are so elegantly crafted they remind me of the beautiful strokes of paint. They also seem to be the work of a cinematographer.The book is of course about unrequited love, about the need for love, about the failure of love. But it is also about using form to discover what is important. To save yourself, one's self, his self. The hypnotism of the lines, the density of the texts makes us complicit, and proves a queer sort of intimacy. Does it matter that the tumultous and turbulent loves told about in the book are same sex? Yes and no. I don't know. It should. But I can see how it doesn't also. The structure of this book is the story, the story board even. It is no accident that the first poem is entitled Scheherezade. Siken's Thousand and One Nights are told with a combination of ferocity and sentimentalism (in the best sense of this poor word), and he saves himself from the worst excesses of romanticism and expressionism by the use of a variety of directions. Imagine this, look at that, etc. The Director of Love. The books ends hopefully.