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tallonrk1's review
3.0
This is one of those books you can learn a lot from. This poetry book investigates the dark history of eugenics in the United States, and the historical ramifications of it. Collins' writing style itself wasn't to my tastes, a bit plain. But, the poetry form is simply a vehicle for Collins to tell this narrative, and it is successful in doing so. 6/10
evenstr's review
5.0
A very heavy, very important read. Many of the pieces are not "conventionally poetic" (as another reviewer so astutely put it), but their content is worth so much more than their form.
emtobiasz's review
3.0
An interesting read. Collins tackles many of the darker themes of twentieth-century America-- white supremacists, eugenics, forced sterilization-- and contextualizes them within more familiar American history as well as her family's own involvement in the movements. I picked up the book for its mention of the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis (I think the author and I went to the same centennial exhibits at the Missouri History Museum) and I liked the way Collins related early anthropology to pseudoscientific movements like phrenology and eugenics and traced their effects over time and across the U.S.
Two things kept me from liking this more, though: one, the book tries to cover so much ground across so much time and space and so many historical figures. It's a lot to do in less than 100 pages of poetry, and such scope meant that none of it felt very in-depth. A poem would introduce the life story of Ota Benga or Carrie Buck, and perhaps they would be mentioned again a few poems later, but it still felt like individuals were dropped in favor of themes. Collins mentioned her family's connection to individual events, but didn't elaborate. I wanted more of a human connection than a lecture, and I didn't get it.
Second (and this may be more my own fault as reader than the fault of the text), I'm not sure that poetry was the best form for this narrative. I liked the poems throughout when Collins dove deep into the double or triple meanings of a word, though I don't think those poems would have been able to stand alone without the collection. The rest of the poems were mostly narrative, which just isn't my preferred form of poetry.
Anyway, it's a smart look at a few key movements in twentieth-century American history and the relationships they had to each other and the institutionalized prejudices of the day. But for an in-depth examination of these themes, or a personalized response, I'd look elsewhere.
Two things kept me from liking this more, though: one, the book tries to cover so much ground across so much time and space and so many historical figures. It's a lot to do in less than 100 pages of poetry, and such scope meant that none of it felt very in-depth. A poem would introduce the life story of Ota Benga or Carrie Buck, and perhaps they would be mentioned again a few poems later, but it still felt like individuals were dropped in favor of themes. Collins mentioned her family's connection to individual events, but didn't elaborate. I wanted more of a human connection than a lecture, and I didn't get it.
Second (and this may be more my own fault as reader than the fault of the text), I'm not sure that poetry was the best form for this narrative. I liked the poems throughout when Collins dove deep into the double or triple meanings of a word, though I don't think those poems would have been able to stand alone without the collection. The rest of the poems were mostly narrative, which just isn't my preferred form of poetry.
Anyway, it's a smart look at a few key movements in twentieth-century American history and the relationships they had to each other and the institutionalized prejudices of the day. But for an in-depth examination of these themes, or a personalized response, I'd look elsewhere.
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