Reviews - Calling a Wolf a Wolf

500 reviews for:

Calling a Wolf a Wolf

Kaveh Akbar

4.29 AVERAGE

azzzz's review against another edition

5.0

Kaveh Akbar was the first contemporary poet I read. his poems always leave me in so much awe and in a sense of strange possibility that I struggle to describe.

kaitexpectations's review against another edition

4.25

Everytime I picked this collection up I enjoyed it so much. This poet has such a way with words. I can see myself picking it up to read a poem or two again and again. I think next time I read it I'll read all the portrait poems back to back.

sapphodemia's review against another edition

4.5

emotional reflective slow-paced

kelseymay's review against another edition

Reread update: 3.5 / 4 stars because the language is so gorgeous. I think what I struggle with in *most* of these poems is that the train of thought switches from phrase to phrase so rapidly and seemingly without connection, and I often finish a poem not really knowing what it was about. In rereading poems though (some I read three times in a row just to figure out what they were saying), I could figure out elements of each and the religious commentary, if I understood it correctly, is actually quite powerful. Probably my favorite aspect of this collection is the humanity of it, the crossroads it's written from that admits that the speaker doesn't have it all together.

***

First read review: These poems are ruthless and luscious, but this collection didn't hit the way "Portrait of an Alcoholic" did. I think much of the language was unnecessarily violent and graphic in a way that took away from the content of the pieces, and I'm not sure that the religious elements were for me. I still love Kaveh's work, even though my overall impression of this collection wasn't what I wanted. When all is said and done, I don't regret buying this book and I honestly cannot wait for more from him.