Reviews

Breath by Philip Levine

mattleesharp's review

2.0

Levine has quickly become maybe my favorite living poet. This is my fourth or fifth collection of his this year, and that may have a lot to do with the low rating, but I just did not feel this book much at all. The poems weren't very well organized. I felt like I was jumping back and forth in time randomly. The subjects of Levine's poems are often working class Detroit folk, and I usually enjoy this character of his poetry, but many of those captured moments in these poems just felt kind of flat. I'm glad I read the book, but if you're not already a fan What Work Is is probably a better introduction to his work, and The Feed They Lion is a true masterpiece.