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A review by nmcannon
Holding Company by Major Jackson
3.0
This book was an interesting experience for me. The imagery is undeniably beautiful: it's amazing what a poet can accomplish within mostly the same format of 10 lines per poem a piece. I was soaked in fog and seawind, wended forest and field paths, and got lost in the grandness of the NYC. Against this backdrop of natural landscape and cityscape, Jackson meticulously explores the crossroads of romance, lust, hedonism, drug culture, Greek philosophy, and class with little alleyways into race, women, and more contemporary artistic thought. Holding Company is mind-bending and exploding and definitely a premiere voice and work.
HOWEVER, I think Jackson could have explored perspective more: the reader is never out of the same speaker's head, it seems. Almost every poem mentions a "she," a woman, or a veritable flock of female-identified bodies, but only one is given a voice in the last five poems. Otherwise women are treated like amorphous bunches of clouds encased in skin (which the speaker kisses a lot). A few poems seem to refer to and apologize for this, but I was expecting more.
This is my first time reading Jackson's poetry, so perhaps others not so focused on modern love culture will be different. Like I said above, it is a wonderfully lovely collection and I do intend to pass my copy on to my poet friends. Just maybe along with some Sappho.
HOWEVER, I think Jackson could have explored perspective more: the reader is never out of the same speaker's head, it seems. Almost every poem mentions a "she," a woman, or a veritable flock of female-identified bodies, but only one is given a voice in the last five poems. Otherwise women are treated like amorphous bunches of clouds encased in skin (which the speaker kisses a lot). A few poems seem to refer to and apologize for this, but I was expecting more.
This is my first time reading Jackson's poetry, so perhaps others not so focused on modern love culture will be different. Like I said above, it is a wonderfully lovely collection and I do intend to pass my copy on to my poet friends. Just maybe along with some Sappho.