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A review by lizaroo71
Apple: Skin to the Core by Eric Gansworth
3.0
Where to begin. I have been reading many books on a list NPR put out in December 2020 for the best books published in 2020. This is on that list. It's written in verse, but my goodness it is dense. Gansworth traces his familial roots to the boarding schools that stripped the native nations’ denizens of their culture and identify. The repercussions are long reaching into generations down the line.
Gansworth uses The Beatles' Apple label and The White Album as inspiration in a unique way. Luckily I read the notes in the back before I completed the sections modeled on the songs from the album or I may have missed the attention to detail. But, while I found the material insightful and I loved the references to the music of the era, I found that the format didn't mesh well with the content. I think this would have worked better as straight paragraphs or short vignettes. As verse, many of the pieces felt verbose. As a teacher of high school students, I would say many would find this difficult to navigate. They also would not understand most of the pop culture and music references. Gansworth writes YA fiction also. I think I would like to read some of those books to get a fuller picture of his writing style.
This is aimed at YA and published by Levine Querido. They also published [b:Everything Sad Is Untrue:|54848594|Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story)|Daniel Nayeri|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1596858371l/54848594._SX50_.jpg|70768669] which is labeled as YA, but is dense in the same way. Perhaps the editors should reconsider the label and just aim both books at adults. They certainly are not written in a way that suggests the material is more accessible to teens.
Gansworth uses The Beatles' Apple label and The White Album as inspiration in a unique way. Luckily I read the notes in the back before I completed the sections modeled on the songs from the album or I may have missed the attention to detail. But, while I found the material insightful and I loved the references to the music of the era, I found that the format didn't mesh well with the content. I think this would have worked better as straight paragraphs or short vignettes. As verse, many of the pieces felt verbose. As a teacher of high school students, I would say many would find this difficult to navigate. They also would not understand most of the pop culture and music references. Gansworth writes YA fiction also. I think I would like to read some of those books to get a fuller picture of his writing style.
This is aimed at YA and published by Levine Querido. They also published [b:Everything Sad Is Untrue:|54848594|Everything Sad Is Untrue (a true story)|Daniel Nayeri|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1596858371l/54848594._SX50_.jpg|70768669] which is labeled as YA, but is dense in the same way. Perhaps the editors should reconsider the label and just aim both books at adults. They certainly are not written in a way that suggests the material is more accessible to teens.