A review by kitnotmarlowe
The Needle's Eye: Passing Through Youth by Fanny Howe

challenging slow-paced

2.75

perhaps fanny howe's style is a little bit too experimental for me. sometimes when i do not connect with poetry, it's more of a matter of my personal taste and i can still admire the form and literary merit. other times, it's just. not very good. normally in the case of the first i leave the collection unrated, but i think the case of the needle's eye: passing through youth is a mixture of both. the repeated images and subjects present throughout these essays and poems--sts. francis & clare, the boston bombers, cinema--don't feel like running threads that are renewed with each interrogation, so much as familiar subjects to lean back onto. there is the occasional masterful turn of phrase, but for the most part, there isn't much fun or challenge to be had with the forms she employs. 

this was my introduction to howe's oeuvre and i chose it on a whim because i saw a snippet from the piece kristeva & me that i found quite powerful. i'm not sure if i will read more of her work, but maybe i will dip into an earlier poem from time to time.