A review by veecaswell
Some Are Always Hungry by Jihyun Yun

4.0

Winner of the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry, Some Are Always Hungry chronicles a family’s wartime survival, immigration, and heirloom trauma through the lens of food, or the lack thereof.

This collection is certainly unforgettable, in how it uses language and metaphor to deliver imagery that is second to none. 'The Leaving Season' is a great example of how the author uses food and imagery as a way of portraying human emotion as she uses the example of a pig, and though somewhat uncomfortable I was, the use of the imagery was incredible and made you able to understand what the writer was trying to deliver, it leaves you with food for thought.

There there are the moments in this collection that are powerful and leave an impact. Lines in these poems that just leave you left with the story that is being told. In particular, 'Grandmother, Praying' in particular comes to mind, with 'The Leaving season'. It is lines such as “Sun, in this life, I will be your daughter And you will teach me how to run” that just pack a punch and leave you provoked for a long time after you have read it.

An excellent collection of poetry that is clever and thought-provoking, I'm glad I got the opportunity to read it.

(I received an ARC from Netgalley for honest review).