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A review by louise_reads
Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
4.0
3.75⭐️ // ARC provided by the publishers via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
"How can we know, in a house full of bread, that it's hunger, not people, that survives?"
Ocean Vuong's poetry is visceral and compelling - it unflinching pulls into the light the dark, complex nuances of grief, survival, love, and heartache. It feels raw, and yet at the same time so meticulously considered that you could imagine each sentence taking months to write, to feel.
Part of such thorough and honest self-exploration through words inevitably means that some poems will resonate more with readers than others - and I definitely found this to be true for me. Whilst I felt some lines and phrases so deeply that it was like holding up a mirror, and others were enlightening and fascinating to me as exploring a new perspective, there were a fair few in the collection that I either didn't understand, or wasn't meant to understand, which limited my enjoyment.
Regardless, though, Vuong's use of metaphor and the earnest, headlong way he confronts difficult emotions will stick with me for a long time.
"How can we know, in a house full of bread, that it's hunger, not people, that survives?"
Ocean Vuong's poetry is visceral and compelling - it unflinching pulls into the light the dark, complex nuances of grief, survival, love, and heartache. It feels raw, and yet at the same time so meticulously considered that you could imagine each sentence taking months to write, to feel.
Part of such thorough and honest self-exploration through words inevitably means that some poems will resonate more with readers than others - and I definitely found this to be true for me. Whilst I felt some lines and phrases so deeply that it was like holding up a mirror, and others were enlightening and fascinating to me as exploring a new perspective, there were a fair few in the collection that I either didn't understand, or wasn't meant to understand, which limited my enjoyment.
Regardless, though, Vuong's use of metaphor and the earnest, headlong way he confronts difficult emotions will stick with me for a long time.