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A review by billyjepma
Home: 100 Poems by Christian Wiman
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
A thoughtful and surprisingly sharp collection of poems that romanticize, contemplate, and, at times, condemn our ideas of home. I love Wiman's poetry and the collections he edits, but I don't think that predisposition overshadows how sharp his selections and framing are with this book. His (dense but lovely) introduction makes it obvious that this book was created amidst COVID, and you can feel that context pressing against the pages. It can function outside that context but is sharpest when viewed within it because it forces you to consider (or reconsider) the different repercussions of being asked/forced to isolate in your home. I don't think there's a particular takeaway Wiman wants his readers to have, though. The book is meant to be a meditation on home as a physical space, an emotion, a people, the lack of space, and more.
The poets featured here range from across the globe and aren't confined to any one time period, either, so we get to explore different concepts of "home" from a diverse assortment of perspectives. Wiman groups them smartly, too, and lets specific (unmarked) sections occupy a shared tone. One batch of poems might focus on idealized views, another might come off as more sad or regretful, but it's the borderline angry, interrogative sections that hit me hardest. The issues are timeless and plucked from the present and the past, but in the framing provided by this book, they hit on distinctly modern themes and questions. Wiman's political slant can be glimpsed, but that's by design, and I'd rather see the strings of an editor in a collection like this than not.
I will likely be simmering on this for the rest of the year. It struck a nerve I didn't know I had, which is almost always the reaction I want a work of poetry to do. I loved it.
The poets featured here range from across the globe and aren't confined to any one time period, either, so we get to explore different concepts of "home" from a diverse assortment of perspectives. Wiman groups them smartly, too, and lets specific (unmarked) sections occupy a shared tone. One batch of poems might focus on idealized views, another might come off as more sad or regretful, but it's the borderline angry, interrogative sections that hit me hardest. The issues are timeless and plucked from the present and the past, but in the framing provided by this book, they hit on distinctly modern themes and questions. Wiman's political slant can be glimpsed, but that's by design, and I'd rather see the strings of an editor in a collection like this than not.
I will likely be simmering on this for the rest of the year. It struck a nerve I didn't know I had, which is almost always the reaction I want a work of poetry to do. I loved it.